The Acolyte: Manny Jacinto joins Disney+’s Star Wars series

The Acolyte is shaping up to be one of my most anticipated Star Wars projects, mostly due to how little we know about it. The series is described as a “mystery thriller that will take us into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging Dark Side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” Amandla Stenberg (Bodies, Bodies, Bodies) is playing the lead in The Acolyte, and Deadline has reported that Manny Jacinto (The Good Place) will be joining her in the Star Wars series.

The Acolyte is being developed by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and will take place during the High Republic era, a golden age for the Jedi that hasn’t been explored in live-action. In addition to Amandla Stenberg and Manny Jacinto, the Star Wars series will also star Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) and Jodie Turner-Smith (Anne Boleyn). As with the other characters in the series, details regarding who Manny Jacinto is playing are being kept under wraps.

Production on The Acolyte is expected to begin in London later this year. Leslye Headland has previously teased that the origin of the series stemmed from questions she had while watching The Phantom Menace. “How did we get to where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it?” Headland said. “What went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment? So that’s what I would say. That’s how I would describe it to my friends, especially my non-Star Wars friends.” In addition to exploring an era we don’t know all that much about, we also haven’t seen a Star Wars series revolve around Dark Side characters. “I think if you want to explore Star Wars from the perspective of the bad guys, the best time to do it is when the bad guys are wildly outnumbered,” Headland teased. “When they actually are essentially the underdogs, for lack of a better term.” Manny Jacinto was recently seen taking to the skies alongside Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick.