The first two episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney+, and Lucasfilm's latest live-action Star Wars series certainly started with a bang!
Major spoilers follow.
The premiere begins with mysterious masked warrior Mae (Amandla Stenberg) walking into a cantina and challenging Jedi Master Indara (Carrie -Anne Moss) to a duel. We've seen quite a bit of their ensuing battle in the trailers, but the outcome is sure to come as a shock to many viewers.
Unable to get the better of Indara in a fair fight, Mae resorts to throwing one of her blades at the bartender, and when her Jedi opponent uses the Force to stop the weapon before it strikes, the Dark-side assassin takes advantage of the distraction by flinging another knife into Indara's chest - killing her almost instantly.
During an interview with EW, showrunner Leslye Headland explained the decision to kill-off the character played by arguably the biggest name in the show during the very first scene.
“The truth is that I just wanted to create a cold open. I think it's the TV writer in me, to create a cold open that you were just shocked by.”
"Not to compare myself at all to Vince Gilligan," she continues, "but the cold open to Breaking Bad is one of the best cold opens ever. So whenever I sit down to write anything, I'm like, ‘Well, I won't be able to top that, but in my show, what's the version of that?’ And it felt like the best I could come up with was killing Carrie-Anne Moss. It was icing Trinity and just having everyone go, ‘I'm sorry. What's happening in this?’”
Moss does return in flashbacks, but we can see some fans taking issue with this!
In The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.
The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGraté and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.
Headland also directed the premiere episodes (Eps. 101 & 102). Directors Kogonada (Eps. 103 & 107), Alex Garcia Lopez (Eps. 104 & 105) and Hanelle Culpepper (Eps. 106 & 108) round out the directing duties on the series.
"I really wanted to tell a story about the Sith," showrunner Headland told EW in a recent interview. "That was kind of my dream Star Wars idea. But it felt like the time period to do that in would be something pre-Phantom Menace. That seemed to be the most interesting trajectory for the Sith: How did the Sith go from the Rule of Two and being quote-unquote 'extinct' to Palpatine coming into power without the Jedi knowing about it?"
Award-winning composer Michael Abels, known for his work on Get Out and Us, scored The Acolyte.