Good news for fans of Star Wars’ Dark Side. It seems Leslye Headland’s High Republic-set Disney+ show, Star Wars: The Acolyte, is currently casting up beyond just its star, Amandla Stenberg. Now actress Jodie Turner-Smith is reportedly joining the mix in an undisclosed role.
Turner-Smith is not a household name yet but she’s well on her way to that status. Besides being cast in a new Star Wars show, the actress recently appeared in this year’s underrated sci-fi film After Yang, and co-starred with Nope’s Daniel Kaluuya in the buzzed-about 2019 drama Queen and Slim. She’s also in the upcoming Adam Driver film White Noise and the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston sequel, Murder Mystery 2.
The trade reports that The Acolyte will start filming later this year in London. Little is known officially about it except that it’s set thousands of years before the Skywalker Saga, and is likely to focus on some kind of Dark Side-adjacent Sith lore. Stenberg, who is playing the lead, officially announced their involvement at San Diego Comic-Con.
With Turner-Smith’s likely casting, and a fast-approaching start date, it seems possibly we’ll be hearing much more about The Acolyte soon. (Maybe at the D23 Expo later this week?) As for when we’ll see the show, 2024 seems like the most likely timeframe. Andor will be here in a few short weeks, followed in February by season three of The Mandalorian. That’s likely to be followed by the Ahsoka show and then, probably, Jon Watts’ Skeleton Crew, which is also currently filming. Could we possibly get four Star Wars shows in 2023? We’ll have to wait and find out.
Deadline broke the news of the casting and Gizmodo has reached out to Lucasfilm for comment. We’ll update this story if or when we hear.
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Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.