"I see fire."

THE ACOLYTE Trailer Is Fire

I’m vibrating with excitement as I write this. The Acolyte, from showrunner Leslye Headland (the inimitable Russian Doll) looks like wicked mix of old school and new school. This trailer has Big Prequel Energy with something unexpected and dangerous mixed in for more-than-good measure.

Obviously, fans of The High Republic are lifting rocks as they watch this trailer, as it brings us an era that is-as-yet-unexplored in live action. But even if you don’t know a damn thing about The High Republic, the trailer just radiates with coolness and intrigue. From Charlie Barnett (from Russian Doll) having a big part to play, to the inspired casting of Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae as a Jedi Master, to the high fantasy feeling of a Wookie Jedi, to the vistas and grimy streets, it looks like Everything I Want Please And Thank You.

While I know the interviews that promoted the series suggested that The Acolyte is “Frozen meets Kill Bill,” the vibe I’m getting is more Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Carrie Anne-Moss’s charisma is off-the-charts and watching her play Michelle Yeoh to Amandla Stenberg’s Zhang Ziyi is making my heart drive donuts in the parking lot.

One of the most exciting things about this series is that it touches on a piece of the Star Wars timeline that’s new: the re-emergence of the Sith. In The Phantom Menace, the Jedi literally don’t believe the Sith could have returned with their sensing it. Somehow, though, Palpatine is there, right under their noses, undetected, having trained an apprentice powerful enough to take on two of them at once. Somewhere along the line, The High Republic gave way to The Republic as we find it in the beginning of the now-christened “Skywalker Saga,” and somewhere the Jedi went from the greatness of their past to a stoic, conservative monk-like order.

Here, perhaps, we see the germ of that transition. The trailer suggests that the young Jedi have never even laid eyes on a red lightsaber! And it also suggests that the objection of the Purple Order of Awesome Witches (red and blue, of course!) is the consolidation of power in particular hands. Rebellion against orthodoxy is a very relatable, even admirable, impulse, even if that orthodoxy is the Jedi Order. It’s rife with dramatic possibilities!

There’s so much to unpack but I’ll stop there for now, I’d like to just watch the trailer again. I cannot wait for June.

Oh, but one more thing!

IS SHE ON AHCH-TO?