******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!******

A pupil leaves the monastic temple they grew up in, roaming to different lands, seeking new adventures, and getting into life-and-death scrapes as their unique skillset is often put to the test.  That is the premise of both TV’s “Kung Fu” (1972-1975) and the new Disney+ Star Wars streaming spinoff, “The Acolyte.”  And just as the late David Carradine’s “Caine” would often flashback to his early days at the temple, “The Acolyte”’s Osha (Amandla Stenberg) is forced to confront her Jedi past as well, when her evil force-sensitive twin Mae is suspected of killing Jedi Knights across the galaxy.  Think “Kung Fu” as a whodunnit. 

Written by showrunner Leslye Headland, the first two episodes of “The Acolyte” (“Lost/Found,” “Revenge/Justice”) are now available for streaming with the remaining six following in the weeks ahead. In the first two episodes, we meet key members of the ensemble.

Core Characters

Mae (Amandla Stenberg) is a rogue, force-sensitive young woman who is on a quest to assassinate key Jedi Knights for an unknown master, who is only teasingly glimpsed from behind in the very first episode. Mae is believed to be dead by her twin sister Osha, an ex-Jedi trainee who left the order under as-yet unclear circumstances. Mae never trained to be a Jedi, yet it’s clear she’s been given lessons in force-wielding from her as-yet unseen master (my guess is Palpatine’s future Sith Master, Darth Plagueis, but don’t quote me on that…).

Note: Amandla Stenberg gets the plum dual roles of both hero and villain. And while the series is only two episodes in so far, it’s clear the actress is having a lot more fun as Mae.

Osha (Stenberg) is a young ex-Jedi trainee now living on a spaceship as a ‘mechnic’ (don’t know why they nixed the ‘a’; it only makes ‘mechanic’ more tongue-twisting), with her pocket droid Pip, which is a combination smartphone and Swiss Army knife. Framed for the murder of a revered Jedi Master and taken into Jedi custody, Osha realizes it must be her evil twin sister Mae, whom she’d believed to be dead. Osha is later released by her sympathetic former master, as she aids in the Jedi investigation.

Note: Stenberg plays Osha well enough, though the heroine is never as much fun to play as the villain, of course.  By comparison, Osha feels a little dull compared to her flashier, more dynamic twin sister.

Given the series’ superficial similarity to “Kung Fu,” Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) would be the Master Po (Keye Luke) of this series; the wisened Master who instructed Osha before she left the Jedi, and who remains sympathetic to his former pupil, despite her walking away from his teachings.  When he and Osha are reunited following her arrest, Sol is unconvinced of her guilt, despite eyewitness accounts, and orders her released from custody, trusting she will voluntarily join the investigation; which she does.  Sol is also comparable to the wizened Yoda, with more than a dash of Liam Neeson’s rebellious Master “Qui-Gon Jinn” (“Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”) as well. 

Note: I was more impressed with the South Korean actor’s performance after learning that the actor, a lifelong Star Wars fan, learned English phonetically after landing the role.  His English in the series sounds both accurate and heartfelt; a tribute to his skills.  The actor rose from a modeling background, which is good physical training for the complex Jedi-martial arts sequences seen in the series so far.  I’ve a couple friends who’ve been models, and modeling is one of those skills that seems easy until you try it. 

Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) is the Jedi Master who’s murdered in the first episode after a furious martial arts duel with Mae. Her death sparks an investigation that sets the series in motion. While we don’t get to know Indara well in the first two episodes, I’m guessing we’ll learn more about her in flashbacks (à la Laura Palmer in “Twin Peaks”) as the series progresses.

Note: Carrie-Anne Moss’s martial arts work in the four “Matrix” movies (1999-2021) clearly pays off in the first act of “The Acolyte” as the Jedi Master gets into a lethal battle with Mae. The combat is surprisingly physical, too; relying less on lightsabers and more on mixed martial arts and wirework.

Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) is a member of Master Sol’s team that is investigating the assassinations of Jedi Knights.  While Yord is a friend of Osha from her days in the Jedi order, he has no qualms about taking her into custody after eyewitnesses place her at Indara’s murder scene. Recently attaining the level of Master, Yord is more rigid and by-the-book than his comrades, with some humor coming from his being a stickler for the rules at the expense of his own intution.  

Note: How Yord Fandar made the rank of Jedi Master is beyond me, since trainee Jedi investigator Jecki Lon seems to be five steps ahead of him at all times. Good for chuckles, perhaps, but bad for his character.

Young Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) is half-Theelin (whatever that is) and half-human, and is currently training under Master Sol. As the team’s smart-aleck teenager, Jecki finds obvious shortcuts to their mission that elude the more by-the-book comrade, Master Yord Fandor, setting up an almost R2-D2/C3PO relationship between them.  Jecki is wiser and less restrained in her thinking than her older colleagues.

Note: Save for her half-alien makeup, Jecki Lon is a character right out of “Harry Potter,” another fantasy franchise with which this series has some lineage. Think Hermione with a lightsaber instead of a wand. 

Qimir (Manny Jacinto) is the implicit Han Solo of this series, but he’s more of bumbling ne’er do well than cool smuggler-type.  When we first meet him, the morally-dubious Qimir is on the planet Olega, working at an apothecary (consuming much of the inventory), where he provides Mae with the items she needs to carry out her deadly mission; no questions asked.  Under Jedi probing, Qimir’s forced to come clean about his association with Mae.  Attempting to gather intel, Osha meets Qimir while disguised as her twin Mae, but Qimir doesn’t quite buy the impersonation.

Note: Qimir’s implicit drug use is about the closest the series comes to dealing with the more adult issues seen in Disney+’s “Andor.” There’s also a not-raised ethical question concerning the Jedi’s forceful mind-probing of suspects (there’s got to be an Old Republic version of the Bill of Rights, one hopes…?).

Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) is a character from the “Star Wars: High Republic” books/comics series that I freely admit I’ve never read.  At over 100 years old, the stern, serious character is an elder at the Jedi Temple (thank you, Wookieepedia).  Beyond that bit of info, and a few lines of exposition, we don’t see much of Vernestra in the first two episodes, which are centered around the Jedi investigating team led by Master Sol. That may change, of course, in the next six episodes.

Note: At only 44 years old, actress Rebecca Henderson is (fortunately) well shy of 100. At the risk of sounding nepotistic, Henderson is also the wife of showrunner Leslye Headland.

One of the few different elements of this largely off-the-shelf series is the reveal of Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), whom we meet at the end of episode 2 (“Revenge/Justice”). In his introductory scene, we see the massive Wookiee Jedi force-push a bad guy out of his way, though it might have been more fun to see Kelnacca simply toss that person like a rag doll (even if that’s not the “way of a Jedi”). While Wookiee Jedis are not unknown in Star Wars expanded lore, this is the first appearance of a Wookiee Jedi in live-action.

Note: Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo follows in the massive footsteps of the late Peter Mayhew (1944-2019), having shared the role of the iconic Chewbacca with Mayhew in “The Force Awakens” (2015), before fully assuming the role in subsequent Star Wars movies, including the unfairly maligned Star Wars prequel “Solo” in 2018.

As teased in the trailers, we can also expect to see Jodie Turner-Smith as a character named ‘Mother Aniseya’ very soon.  The characters are simplistically drawn in the first two episodes (good/evil twins, shady allies, stalwart masters, etc), and I assume they’ll be given more complexity as the series progresses.  

Sadly, I’ve read much online ugliness regarding the inclusive casting of “The Acolyte,” and while I despise giving bigoted bottom-feeder critics any oxygen, I will say this: If anyone has issues with the more racial and gender-inclusive casting of this series? Those are their own issues, not casting issues. Moving on…

Impressions

Set 100 years before the fall of the Old Republic, this series skews a bit more toward millennials and Gen-Zs who adore the prequel era of Star Wars (1999-2005). While I appreciate that the previously maligned prequels have finally found their fan base, they’re still not quite my cup of blue milk, and that’s perfectly okay. Star Wars fans of my oldster generation seem to have a tough time dealing with the hard, cold fact that not everything coming out of this long-running universe will be exclusively tailor-made for us. 

The dialogue of “The Acolyte” is very clean and formal, and there is no hint of romance (let alone sexuality) or anything else too adult to break the more innocent vibe of this Star Wars whodunnit. There’s even a pocket-sized droid named “Pip” that just begs for merchandising tie-ins (I wouldn’t be surprised to see them for sale online or at conventions). Production values for this series are typically Disney-high, with generous use of lightsaber FX and virtual wraparound LED environments. “The Acolyte” certainly looks as good as any contemporary Star Wars series. 

While there is that “Kung Fu” feel about it (as mentioned up top in this column), there’s also a lot of “Harry Potter” mixed in there as well, with magical knights, witches and wannabe-wizards surrounding a mystery which threatens to uncover a deep dark conspiracy. “The Acolyte” has a strong Young Adult-vibe about it, meaning that fans of the harder-hitting “Andor” series might feel a bit alienated by this more juvenile-leaning show. “Andor” itself is a well-made, beautifully-acted Star Wars series; and while I appreciate it intellectually, it can be as fun as a root canal. As an old coot raised on the original trilogy, I prefer my Star Wars with a bit more dashing adventure.

While there is nothing upsettingly wrong with “The Acolyte,” I would be disappointed to hear if it served as a newbie’s introduction to the Star Wars universe, which began as a game-changing movie series that just about rewrote my DNA in that summer of 1977. There is very little that’s profound or life-changing with this modestly-entertaining, inoffensive new series. Then again, I long ago realized not everything produced under the Star Wars banner was going to be game-changing (see: “The Star Wars Holiday Special”).

Clearly Disney is trying to make a Star Wars for every possible demographic (oldsters, newbies, sadists). The only downside, of course, is that each series may not fully satisfy anyone. However, with only two episodes to date, it’s too early to judge this eight-episode season/series on the whole.

As Obi-Wan Kenobi would say…

Where To Watch

“Star Wars: The Acolyte” is available to stream exclusively on Disney+.