“Star Wars” is set to make a grand return this June with the highly-anticipated Disney+ series “Star Wars: The Acolyte.” A recent feature from Entertainment Weekly has shed light on the character played by actress Dafne Keen (“Logan”), a young Jedi, the Padawan of Lee Jung-jae’s Jedi Master Sol. The series revolves around the enigmatic murder mystery of multiple Jedi, a case that Sol is determined to solve. These bizarre deaths occur during the twilight of The High Republic era, a period set 100 years before the events of the prequels such as “The Phantom Menace.”
EW has revealed new stills (see below) of Keen’s half-human, half-alien character, and the young actress revealed her name, Jecki Lon. “And I’m very happy that I get to say that she’s an alien and that she’s a Padawan and that she’s a Jedi. She’s a mixed species — part Theelin, part human,” she said. “She’s very cool, and I have some very cool fights I do with the lightsaber.”
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Keen also reveals that the relationship between Jecki Lon and Sol differs greatly from what we saw with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. “I’d say she is a very dedicated Padawan. [Jecki is] definitely in awe of him in a very kind of sweet way,” she explained. “She thinks the absolute world of him in a way that I think they have a very sweet relationship, but she’s much more aware of the authority difference than, for example, Obi-Wan and Anakin. She’s very much like, ‘No, he’s the master, and I’m the Padawan, and he’s perfect. And everything he says, I have to follow to the T.’”
Showrunner Leslye Headland (“Russian Doll”) previously told EW that she zeroed in on getting Keen involved with the “Star Wars” series because of her fierce performance in the Wolverine swan song “Logan,” playing the character’s female clone/surrogate daughter. Headland said, “I just wanted to see X-23 with a lightsaber in their hand. That has to happen.”
While the series returns “Star Wars” to its Jedi roots, there is an optimism among fans that the murder/mystery element of the show will separate itself from the Skywalker Saga. Plus, it’s covering a new era of the “Star Wars” timeline that has only been explored in the franchise’s publishing side via comics and novels. Headland has already suggested limited callbacks, so “The Acolyte” sounds like it will try to stand out on its own.
You can check out the new images below, and we’ll be able to start viewing “The Acolyte” on June 4 with the show’s two-episode premiere.
