The current Disney+ series The Acolyte is bringing to life a corner of the Star Wars galaxy never before seen in live action. The era of the High Republic takes place years before George Lucas envisioned what eventually became known as the Prequel Trilogy. And during this time, the Jedi reign supreme. We have seen, over the course of The Acolyte’s first four episodes, ways that the overwhelming power of the Jedi brought peace to the known galaxy. And in the controversial third episode of The Acolyte, we started to understand why some factions – namely, witches who use the Force to create life out of whole cloth – rebel against the will of the Jedi… leading to bigger problems.
So far, the focus of The Acolyte has been on a vengeance mission conducted by Mae (Amandla Stenberg) as she targets the four Jedi that she believed murdered her mother, Mother Aniseya (Jodi Turner-Smith). Episode 4 of The Acolyte not only brought Mae closer along in that mission, it finally brought the Jedi face to face with what we believe to be the main threat in the series – though I do think this character is a red herring distracting us from an even larger danger.
Ignite The Jedi Lightsabers
The Jedi spend most of The Acolyte Episode 4 trying to figure out who has trained Mae. I’m genuinely curious about Manny Jacinto’s character, the snuggler Qimir, as his history with the villain fans are calling Darth “Teeth” is spelled out a bit in this episode. And Qimir is definitely egging Mae along on her mission, almost forcing her to continue as she begins to doubt herself, and his allegiance to her sister, Osha (also Stenberg). But he’s tied up when Kelnacca dies, deepening the mystery.
As the episode concludes, the Jedi face off against Darth “Teeth” for the first time, leading to an INCREDIBLE shot of all the Jedi wielding their lightsabers at the same time. It’s instantly an iconic addition to the legacy of memorable Star Wars shots. So during a recent interview with The Acolyte cinematographer Chris Teague, he explained how the creation of the moment was basically a happy accident. Said Teague:
It's funny, we do so much prep and so much talking and thinking and planning on things to get this right. … That one was one of those moments that came together really easily, and quickly. And I think it was just the fact that when we saw the blocking, and we just saw this group of Jedi all pull out their lightsabers, we all just went, ‘Whoa, okay. This moment – we've got to really make sure we capture this well.’ And it's not just going to be the kind of wide hero shot of everybody. It's going to be that kind of wracking shot down the line, where all the sabers ignite at the same time. Sometimes you're imagining these things for a month in advance. And sometimes they just kind of appear in front of you as a gift, and then you have to capture it.
The episode, as you know, ends on a cliffhanger, and the first time I witnessed it, I legitimately screamed. That’s how I knew that The Acolyte had hooked me, and that the story buried its claws deep into my psyche. The Acolyte did a solid job building up to the reveal of this fascinating villain. Now I’m dying to learn more.
The Other Time We Saw This Character
Because of the reveal of the main Acolyte villain, I scoured back through the precious few mentions we got of them in the series so far. And it brought me to the moment at the very end of The Acolyte Episode 1, where we not only see but hear this character for the first time.
Knowing that Chris Teague helped to shoot this scene as well, I asked him about capturing it, and he explained:
I'm glad you asked about that, because that… so we shot that in Madeira, which is an island that's part of Portugal. They have some really majestic black sand beaches, Black stone beaches. That scene in particular was really daunting for me, because it was such a remote location. Because it was so hard to get to, I didn't have all the bells and whistles that I might want. I didn't have all the lighting tools. I couldn't use a crane or something like that. But I knew we had to design a very dynamic scene for the ending of the (episode). Luckily, I had the time to go out there, walk around, look at a few things, work with some stand-ins and design something that was actually quite simple. All the camera does in that scene is, it just pans left to right. It pans with Mae's feet, and then it finds that figure out on the cliff side there. It was just about trying to … build up to that moment.
There’s no denying that The Acolyte has a distinct look thanks to the fact that the directors are choosing to shoot on sets and locations whenever possible. If your show is set in a faraway galaxy, and you are taking audiences to distant planets, then you should think outside the box and push the visual envelope to deliver things Star Wars fans have never seen. Mind you, some fans might push back against the new. But the bulk of us will appreciate, and invest in, challenging storytelling that explores uncharted territory in the Star Wars universe.
The Acolyte will run for eight total episodes, and conclude on July 16.
