We’re used to seeing Star Wars characters fight with lightsabers. But the first clip from upcoming Disney+ series The Acolyte shows us some highly skilled, absolutely relentless hand-to-hand combat. Even Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is confused: “You attack me without a weapon,” he says to Mae (Amandla Stenberg), his attacker. “Why?”
The context isn’t yet clear enough to answer his question, but kudos to the fight choreographer. Check out the clip!
We don’t want to set our hopes too high, but everything we’ve seen so far from The Acolyte makes us very, very excited to plunge in to these dark new Star Wars waters. Set at the tail end of the High Republic era, around a century before The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte will follow Master Sol (played, as noted above, by Squid Game breakout Lee) as he turns crime-solver, tracking down a former Padawan (Stenberg’s character) who has—as you can clearly see in the clip—turned against the Jedi to embrace a new malevolence.
The show is created by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and also stars Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Sutotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
The Acolyte arrives with a two-episode premiere June 4 on Disney+.
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