When the first trailer for Disney Plus’s new Star Wars series, The Acolyte, dropped this winter, it raked up more views in its first 24 hours than any other Star Wars series to date. However, it also happened to be their most disliked trailer to date on the platform, to the point that many accused online trolls of review-bombing the trailer. Even still, hardcore fans of the franchise seemed to meet the trailer with a bit of a shrug, so Lucasfilm and Disney are celebrating Star Wars Day (May the 4th) with a new, more-action driven trailer which makes it seem almost like a sci-fi version of a classic Kung-Fu film from the seventies.
Indeed, martial arts epics and samurai tales always influenced George Lucas when he crafted the original trilogy, so it makes sense that showrunner Lesyle Headland’s take on the franchise would make these elements more prominent than ever.
As previously revealed, The Acolyte takes place generations before the events of the prequel films and centres around a Jedi master (played by Squid Game’s Lee Jung-Jae) who encounters a dangerous warrior (played by Amandla Stenberg) who seems to reveal dark secrets about The Force and the Jedi Masters. The trailer boasts lots of action and has a final reveal that should get fans talking, with Jung-Jae facing off with a Sith villain (sporting a red lightsaber) with a truly unsettling helmet design that could make this baddie a new fan favourite.
That said, some folks, understandably, are facing a little Star Wars fatigue, with the recent Ahsoka criticized for needing too much knowledge of expanded Star Wars lore to make sense. Headland previously teased that the show was designed so that you don’t have to know all the ins and outs of the expanded franchise to enjoy it, so maybe it’ll crossover to a broader audience. Or maybe not. We’ll have to wait and see.
Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Dafne Keen (Logan), Charlie Barnett (You), Jodie Turner-Smith (Anne Boleyn), Rebecca Henderson (Russian Doll), Dean-Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones), Joonas Suotamon (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix Resurrections) co-star. The Acolyte releases its first two episodes on June 4th.
Do you like this trailer more than the first?
Here’s the poster: