Watch The Star Wars: The Acolyte Trailer

The new trailer for The Acolyte has dropped. Click through to watch it and also for an analysis and discussion of the trailer! You can also check out the second teaser poster. 

Okay, let’s take a closer look at things and analyse them!

Your eyes can deceive you, we must not trust them

Now first things first, the production design is excellent, this certainly looks and feels like Star Wars. The first thing we hear is also a direct Obi-Wan quote from A New Hope. My money is on this particular scene being a flashback, with the little black girl that says she sees “fire” when the teacher asks them to tell him what comes into their mind, all the normal padawans say “life”… “balance”… and then future (I guess) Miss Sithypants (or her twin) says “fire”.

Trinity still knows how to fight

The action choreography looks good, at least several steps up from what we got from things like Obi-Wan Kenobi or Ahsoka. So on a technical level The Acolyte will probably be really good. Also, the inclusion of Carrie-Anne Moss is one of the most exciting things about the show. Now the question is how big her role is.

Hasbro is taking notes

I guess we’ll get a Wookiee Jedi action figure… the inclusion of a few more alien Jedi is always good.

Amandla Stenberg aka Lil Miss Sithypants

While the action in this scene also looks pretty good, I do have some questions about the garb worn by Amandla Stenberg… a) why does she look like a space ninja and b) why does she wear chainmail? Not entirely convinced by the choice of costume here. What good would chainmail be in Star Wars? It would only add unnecesary weight and not help at all against lightsabers or blasters, unless it’s beskar maybe. But why not beskar regular armor then? This feels like a clear case of optics over actual practicality.

Dubious philosophy

Now it gets complicated, Jodie Turner-Smith’s character says this:

This is not about good or bad, this is about power and who is allowed to use it!

Now if the show treats this as something only a Sith would say it’s perfectly fine. However, if this is the actual philosophy of The Acolyte, or the message, then it’s a disaster. In fact, main actress Amandla Stenberg said in an interview something along the lines of that her series wants to challenge the Jedi etc. And while the Jedi are clearly neither perfect nor without flaws, Lucas himself (and the movies) are very clear about one thing: the Jedi are the good guys, the Sith are plain evil, the Force is in balance when there are no Sith. Period. No discussion. Should The Acolyte challenge this idea I foresee many unhappy and angry hardcore fans.

Also, the Jedi are not and never were about power, they do not grant anyone permission to use the Force. You can easily leave the order without any negative repercussions, you can keep your lightsabers, you can even use the Force and the Jedi will neither forbid it nor pursue you. Ahsoka left and still did her own kind of Jedi thing, Dooku left and could do whatever it is he did. If (and it’s a big if) The Acolyte tries to portray the Jedi as some kind of organization that regulates or controls the use of the Force The Acolyte will fundamentally get the idea of what the Jedi are wrong. Their way of doing things is not exclusive, unless you are a Sith or dark sider, then you bring things out of balance, but if you merely disagree with the order about doing things, leave and want to do your own thing no one in the Order would ever stop you, as long as you don’t fall to the dark side.

So we can only hope that the dialogue here is meant to be just the point of view of a Sith, and not something the show actually wants us to believe.

What are they teaching these kids at Jedi High?

Okay, another potential major SNAFU. In The Phantom Menace it is clearly established that a) the Jedi know what Sith are (how can they not know) and b) that the Sith have not been seen in ages, as in, a VERY long time and Darth Maul even talks about finally revealing themselves. Now of course the question is what “a long time” really is. The Acolyte is set roughly 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, is that “a long time”? Or would the fact that Sith are killing Jedi left and right have alerted the Council and convinced them the Sith are back? Canon is not everything, you need to be somewhat flexible, but in my opinion the Lucas trilogy movies should be prime canon, nothing should blatantly contradict things in the original six movies. Sadly, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series did that, with abundance, and had Obi-Wan fight  Vader when in A New Hope it’s very heavily implied the two never met again after their duel on Mustafar. And now it seems The Acolyte may do the same with The Phantom Menace, by contradicting major movie canon. If this is indeed the case I once more see how some or many hardcore fans will be very displeased, no matter how great the action or production design may be.

Also, in the trailer the padawan apparently does not know what a Sith is or what a red lightsaber stands for. Really now? What do they teach these kids at Jedi High? Maybe she was asleep during “Jedi History 101” when Yoda talked about the past. I simply do not believe for ONE second that the Jedi would never ever mention the Sith, the dark side and how to spot a Sith or dark side user to their younglings or padawans. I mean, in The Phantom Menace everyone knew what the Sith are, even if they had not been seen in a long, long time. Yet this very old teen (or maybe early 20s) Jedi does not immediately recognize the relevance of a red lightsaber? Really now? This is simply implausible at best and at worst utter nonsense. The Jedi, even an (older) padawan would not be clueless about who the Sith are or how to spot one or what the significance of a red lightsaber is. Period. So this makes me question how smart the script will really be or if it once again assumes everyone is a clueless idiot.

About a dozen Jedi fight one Sith… hmmmmmmmmmmm

While this scene once more looks absolutely fantastic I do have some basic questions about canonicity again. As mentioned The Phantom Menace heavily implies that the Sith have not been heard or seen in literal ages, meaning, they absolutely did not mow down Jedi knights mere decades ago. The Jedi were not aware of the Sith and their machinations in the background. So the basic question is: how is any of that possible when about a dozen Jedi battle one Sith here in this scene?

Option 1: each and every Jedi in this scene will die a horrible death and no one will be able to send out a distress call or tell someone on the council about the events, that still leaves the question of what the order would think if about a dozen of their Jedi/padawans were killed in a battle and what conclusions they would draw. What or who can defeat so many Jedi? Maybe a Sith??? Would this result in a major investigation?

Option 2: at least one Jedi survives the encounter and reports to the High Council. Which means the Jedi would know the Sith are about, once more contradicting The Phantom Menace, which is not a good thing.

So what is the basic takeaway?

The Acolyte looks great, the action seems to be much, much better than what we got with Ahsoka or Obi-Wan Kenobi. It looks and feels like Star Wars. Seeing the Jedi Order in its prime is also very welcome.

Questions arise about the canonicity of it all and the basic philosophy of the show. What I find also very interesting is that the main character, Amandla Stenberg, was hardly featured in this trailer and that she gets exactly zero lines of dialogue in this trailer, it almost looks as if the trailer would want you to believe the show is about the Jedi and maybe Carrie-Anne Moss, when in fact the series is all about Amandla Stenberg’s character, she’s allegedly playing twins here, with one being a Jedi and the other a Sith. Which of course implies that the evil Sith twin will infiltrate the Jedi order at the end of the series and try her best to pull the wool over their eyes so they do not ever notice how the Sith are preparing their big comeback. I am not sure that this basic plot will be positively received by many. But there are also reasons to be optimistic: The Acolyte looks great, the action, from what we can tell, is excellent, the Jedi Master and Carrie-Anne Moss’ character look and feel the part and seem to be great additions. What we cannot say is how Amandla Stenberg and her Sith ninja will fit in, no dialogue, no acting really, she was only featured in a few brief action moments and possibly in a flashback as a little kid. I do wonder why the first trailer chose to downplay Amandla Stenberg’s character, who is the lead in this.

But what are your feelings after the trailer?

And finally, here is the second teaser poster:

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