The Acolyte: Jodie Turner-Smith in talks to join Star Wars series

Deadline has reported that Jodie Turner-Smith (Anne Boleyn) is finalizing a deal to join the cast of The Acolyte, the latest Star Wars series in development for Disney+.

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. 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, but it’s not known who Jodie Turner-Smith will play.

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.“

Jodie Turner-Smith will next be seen starring alongside Adam Driver in White Noise. The apocalyptic black comedy film was written and directed by Noah Baumbach and recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival. “At once hilarious and horrifying, lyrical and absurd, ordinary and apocalyptic,” reads the official synopsis. “White Noise dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.” White Noise will start streaming on Netflix on December 30th.