Star Wars: The Acolyte Brings On Marvel Director
Star Wars: The Acolyte has finally chosen its director, as Kate Herron will now head up this new series.
Disney+ has given us a wealth of new Star Wars content ever since The Mandalorian became a smash hit thanks to Pedro Pascal’s understated performance and the adorable Grogu. Now there are tons of new Star Wars shows in the works, including the mysterious The Acolyte. While Disney has been drip-feeding details about the upcoming project, there hasn’t been a ton to go off of. However, it looks like they’re going to be putting the show in the hands of Kate Herron, who previously directed the Loki series for the House of Mouse.
According to the Bespin Bulletin, LucasFilm approached Herron in late 2021 to direct Star Wars: The Acolyte. The sources are unclear on if she’s officially signed on for the project. Also, if Herron does take the job, it’s unknown if she’ll be directing the entire series or if she’ll just be helming a few episodes. In either case, Herron seems like a perfect fit for what is supposed to be a female-centric series set in the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars: The Acolyte will be exploring a part of Star Wars history that has largely been unexplored in the Disney canon. The series is set to tell its story near the end of the High Republic era, which is roughly 100 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga. The High Republic was known as a golden era for the Jedi and was extensively explored in the Expanded Universe for Star Wars, which Disney now refers to in the lore as “Legends.” In other words, none of these books are official canon, but it looks like the new series will be pulling some choice elements from these stories and making them a part of Disney’s official timeline.
Star Wars: The Acolyte indicates it will be exploring the end of the High Republic era and the emergence of dark side powers during that time. Notably, in the expanded universe, Count Dooku was born during this time. The former Padawan of Yoda would eventually fall to the dark side, so perhaps a young Dooku could make an appearance in this series. The Acolyte would be far from the first time that elements of the non-canon books were pulled into the official canon. One of the biggest examples was the appearance of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. It’ll be interesting to see what elements from the Star Wars Legends canon are brought into this new series.
Star Wars: The Acolyte is set to hit Disney+ sometime in 2023. While the supposed addition of director Kate Herron is the latest bit of news we have about the Star Wars series, it is confirmed that Leslye Headland, co-creator of Russian Doll, is on as showrunner, executive producer, and writer of the series. We’ll also be getting a video game set around the High Republic era with Star Wars Eclipse, which could pull even more elements from the Expanded Universe. Until then, we have several other major Star Wars releases to look forward to in the near future, with the upcoming Andor starring Diego Luna being the next one we’ll see in August.
