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S01E08: Attack the Grime with The Acolyte!
45 Plays1 year ago
We are just one week away from The Acolyte, a new live-action Star Wars show on Disney+! Grab your droids and brooms and join Bob for a spoiler-free preview of the new show.
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Transcript
Introduction and Premiere Details
00:00:01
Speaker
We are just one week from the premiere of the Acolyte and it's time for a preview. Grab your droids and brooms. It's a Star Wars cleaning crew. Welcome back to the Star Wars cleaning crew. It is time to shift our focus from the past of Star Wars and start thinking about the future of Star Wars and actually the very near future of Star Wars because we have a brand new series on Disney Plus starting one week from today on June 4th.
00:00:27
Speaker
and it is called the acolyte. I talked a little bit about it last week and we're going to dive into it on today's episode.
Comparing Past Star Wars Excitement
00:00:35
Speaker
So it's kind of funny to think about, especially as we've been thinking about episode one over the last few weeks, you know, I remember when the prequels were coming out, I used to make monthly countdowns that I would hang up in my cube at work. I would create a PowerPoint slide with some Star Wars image and I would say
00:00:51
Speaker
12 months to go, 11 months to go, 10 months to go to keep track of it. It was so tuned into it. Now, of course, we're not talking about a theatrical movie. We're talking about a TV show. But this one did kind of sneak up on me. I mean, I was aware that this was being created. It was announced a long time ago. It sounded pretty promising.
00:01:11
Speaker
and I was aware that it was coming but wasn't quite tuned into it. But then of course the Disney marketing muscle has started flexing and getting very excited for the show. So we'll talk about that. Let's dive in with some of the details here though.
00:01:29
Speaker
new disney plus show it's called the acolyte it premieres on june 4th with two episodes and then it will go six more weeks after that for a total of eight episodes which is pretty standard in a uh you know they say we're we're past peak tv right now but it still seems like an eight episode season for a dramatic show or a sci-fi show or something like that is pretty normal so
00:01:53
Speaker
Eight episodes, that means that after that first day will be a quarter way done through the show, because we'll get two episodes that first day, which is kind of funny. But that's the deal. One week from today, you can count that I will be watching the Acolyte on Disney Plus, and I hope you'll be watching it with me. Here's the official log line from
Plot and Setting of The Acolyte
00:02:11
Speaker
Disney. They say, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi master against a dangerous warrior from his past.
00:02:20
Speaker
As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems. So pretty standard. What can we make from that? And, you know, before I go any further, I should say this. This is going to be a spoiler free preview of the Acolyte. So don't worry about turning it off if you don't want to be spoiled. I mean, if you don't want to know anything about it at all, you might want to turn this off. But we're going to stay pretty spoiler free for this entire discussion.
00:02:50
Speaker
What we can get from that is it seems like a mystery. It seems kind of like a detective mystery, and that is what people have said investigating this track of crimes. Now, here's one other thing that we know about the show is it is set during the High Republic timeline.
00:03:07
Speaker
So what is the High Republic? The High Republic is a time period in the Star Wars universe. It's a few hundred years before the prequels and the rise of the Empire and all of the storylines that we know so far. It is about the Republic when it is in its prime, the High Republic.
00:03:28
Speaker
And the Jedi are doing great during this timeline. They are well organized. They they're well respected. They wear really, really cool robes. The robes are are are usually gold and a little more colorful and a little more bright than the the browns and the earth colors and the the topes that we're used to seeing in the prequels and the sequel series.
00:03:54
Speaker
So that's the High Republic. Now, the High Republic was created as a timeline for a new series of books. So there have been several novels that are set during the High Republic timeline, and they're also a company in comic books.
00:04:10
Speaker
And so far that's about all we've seen from the High Republic is printed stuff. It's interesting that they have put the High Republic into different phases. So it's kind of one big epic story. Each novel is part of an epic timeline.
00:04:27
Speaker
and each of these phases is kind of a complete arc in that timeline. My understanding is the acolyte is kind of at the end of the high republic and in fact might be the documentation of the end of the high republic time period. So we'll just have to see if that's the case. Now true confessions I have to tell you. I have read a few of the high republic books
00:04:50
Speaker
And I've tried to read a couple others. I have had a hard time getting into the High Republic, which I know it might sound like blasphemy to Star Horse fans or to people who know me, but I've had a little bit of a hard time getting into it. I think for me is there are a lot of characters and there are new characters.
00:05:09
Speaker
And I'm just I'm an old band friends. I have a hard time keeping track of all these people. And if I don't get a chance to read it for a while, when I come back to it, I have a hard time remembering who's who. And that kind of gets me confused. So I don't know. That's been my experience. Maybe you love the High Republic. I hope you do. Yeah. So the High Republic so far, it's been books. It's been comics.
00:05:31
Speaker
There was a game, a computer game, a video game that was announced a couple of years ago called Star Wars Eclipse that is supposedly still in production after it got announced and it was revealed who the studio was. That's a studio that has had some deep problems with their culture. So there was kind of a little bit of an uproar that these people were working on a Star Wars game and we really haven't heard anything since.
00:05:57
Speaker
but that was a game that was supposed to be taking place during the High Republic. Maybe we'll see that seeing the light of day at some point, but we'll see. But what we do know is the Acolyte is set during the High Republic timeline.
Creators and Cast
00:06:09
Speaker
Now, the Acolyte is the creator, the showrunner, the spark of development for this, the John Favreau,
00:06:19
Speaker
for this show is Leslie Hedlund. So Leslie has a bunch of projects under her belt, the most famous of which is probably the show Russian Doll, which stars Natasha Lyonne. She's one of my favorites. Russian Doll, I watched the first season of that and I really enjoyed it. It is kind of a genre show if you haven't seen it. It's got kind of a Groundhog Day vibe to it. And Natasha Lyonne is really fun. I wonder what it would be like to have Natasha Lyonne
00:06:48
Speaker
in the Star Wars universe. That might be amazing or it might just blow up your minds. But anyway, Leslie Headland is the person who is putting this all together and it'll be really interesting to see what she comes up with. Now let's talk a little bit about the cast and there's a whole cast list. You can go out and you can find it. I don't know everybody in the cast and I think the people I don't know are
00:07:16
Speaker
actors that appear in shows that I don't typically watch. So I usually don't watch the CW. And I usually don't watch your teen dramas and all of that kind of stuff. So I'm just gonna be me here on this. I'm gonna highlight for you the actors that I know that I'm excited about who are part of this. So we're gonna start off with the lead character who we presume actually is the acolyte of the acolyte fame.
00:07:44
Speaker
It's played by Amandla Stenberg and her character's name is May. So she is the dangerous warrior from the past that is referred to in that log line that I read to you earlier. Amandla has been in a few projects lately, but what you might recognize her from was many years ago when she was just a little girl, she played the character of Rue on The Hunger Games. You know, the little girl who kind of is befriended by Katniss.
00:08:13
Speaker
And she was good in that. So I think she's quite talented. By the way, she is also a talented violinist. And if you go to the Star Wars YouTube channel, you can see a little feature short where she wanted to play some Star Wars music on her violin and they actually got John Williams to compose an arrangement.
00:08:34
Speaker
or arrange an arrangement, I guess you would say, of the Force theme for the violin. And that's a pretty fun watch. So, Amanda will be fun to watch in the show. The other character that I'm really excited about is Lee Jeong-Jae. I might be saying his name wrong and I'm sorry. I do have a black belt in Taekwondo, but my Korean is a little rusty.
00:08:55
Speaker
He's a he's a Korean actor and he is most famous for being the star of the squid game So he plays soul who is the Jedi master from the beginning It seems like it will be the guy from the squid games and the little girl from the hunger games Who are the leads for this and getting into new sorts of Jedi games together. I think that'll be great casting and
00:09:19
Speaker
And again, we've seen a few scenes of him fighting and, you know, being a real badass Jedi warrior. I think he's going to be very cool. A lot was reminiscent of Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One. It's kind of the vibe that I was getting from him. So that would be pretty cool. Manny Jacinto plays Khmer. Now, why am I excited about Manny Jacinto?
00:09:45
Speaker
Manny played Jason in The Good Place. And if you've ever seen The Good Place, you know, Jason is a really fun character. He's a big goofball. And it's going to be interesting to see him play this character. I know that he's a smuggler. He's kind of maybe a retired smuggler or a forced to retire smuggler, a little bit grizzled and down on the world.
00:10:08
Speaker
but he will be interesting to watch in this. Here's another one, Joanna Suatimo. And you might be wondering where you've heard that name before. Well, Joanna is very tall and he has been playing wookies a lot lately. So he took over the role of Chewbacca from Peter Mayhew when Peter Mayhew could no longer physically perform it. He was coached in being Chewbacca by Peter Mayhew. And now he's playing a
00:10:33
Speaker
Wookiee Jedi called Kel Naka, and I love the idea of a full-grown Wookiee Jedi. That's gonna be amazing. Finally, the last cast member who I might be most excited about is Carrie Anne Moss, who is playing Indara, who is another Jedi.
00:10:49
Speaker
And Carrie Anne Moss, of course, played Trinity in The Matrix. And again, we've seen a few scenes of her fighting, and the vibe that I'm getting is a Jedi version of Trinity from The Matrix. I tell you what, remember The Matrix came out about the same time as episode one, and we were all just astounded.
00:11:12
Speaker
by the fight scenes and well, everything may happen from The Matrix. The Matrix is almost a perfect movie in my mind. It's going to be so great seeing Carrie Anne Moss in the Star Wars universe. Really, really excited to see that.
00:11:26
Speaker
Now, as we wrap up here, like I said, the Disney marketing train is in full hype. They kind of did the standard operating procedure. So it really started kicking into action just over a month ago. We got a little bit of a teaser trailer and then we got a full on trailer.
00:11:44
Speaker
And then we got, which I mentioned last week, at the end of the episode one re-release, they had a full scene. It was that introductory fight scene between Carrie Anne Moss and Amanda Stenberg. And it looks spectacular. But now we're in the last couple of weeks before the show is released.
00:12:03
Speaker
And Disney is pretty much every day releasing new TV spots, which then most people wind up watching on YouTube.
Anticipation and Expectations
00:12:12
Speaker
These are usually just like one minute clips. And if you watch them, what you will find is they have mostly stuff that you've seen before if you've seen the trailer, but then they'll add just something a little bit more.
00:12:24
Speaker
And there starts to be a point where if you keep watching them, you start getting worried that you're getting into spoiler territory. And that's where I'm at right now. So I stopped watching these daily videos just a couple of days ago. I'm kind of going to go on media blackout for the rest of the week until the acolyte premieres.
00:12:46
Speaker
So that's the rundown of the Acolyte. Should be great. Really looking forward to it. It's looking more like an Andor type of show than a Mandalorian type of show. And that's nothing but goodness from me.
Conclusion
00:13:01
Speaker
So
00:13:01
Speaker
That's really it for this episode of the Star Wars cleaning crew I hope that you got your kitchen clean and learned a little bit more about the acolyte We will see you again next week on the day that the acolyte premieres and until then make sure that you Like subscribe and please write us a review and even more than that tell all your friends about the Star Wars cleaning crew We'll see you next time
00:13:49
Speaker
Oh yeah!