Hey, be straight with us for a second: Is The AcolyteStar Wars cop show?
That’s the impression we can’t help but get from the new trailer for the upcoming Disney+ series, which stars Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae as a Jedi master investigating a series of killings of his fellow robe-folk, apparently perpetrated by former student Amandla Stenberg. Admittedly, the new trailer—released in honor of May 4th, which, as we all know, is phonetically similar to the thing—doesn’t have a ton of cop show tropes. But there’s a vibe of seeing all these brown-robed Jedi hanging out together, talking about investigations and “bringing people in,” that makes us suspect this could be the equivalent of the way The Mandalorian
Or maybe we’re just grasping at straws, because despite running for almost two minutes, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot to this latest full look at The Acolyte. Sure, the Dark Side is clearly rising, but the Dark Side is always rising in these damn things; it’d be a pretty boring TV show if it took place during a Dark Side recession. The big final reveal, of a helmeted baddie with a red lightsaber, feels close to self-parody. And the show’s biggest conceptual shift—that it’s the first live-action series to take place in the relatively new High Republic era, when Jedi were abundant—feels sorely under-used.
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It all looks neat enough, though, with Jodie Turner-Smith looking extremely cool as a “Force witch,” and Manny Jacinto getting to do his version of the Star Wars scoundrel archetype, rolling his eyes at the idea that the Jedi actually provide the galaxy with peace. We’ll know more, of course, when The Acolyte releases on Disney+ next month, prompting that most famous of Star Wars phrases: June the Fourth be with you!