Lucasfilm Storygroup VP Rayne Roberts Is Co-Developing ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Series With Leslye Headland

Lucasfilm recently revealed ten new “Star Wars” projects at their Disney Investors day coming to Disney+ in the near future (11 when you add the belatedly announced “The Book Of Boba Fett“), but a fairly significant update to one of them has been quietly unveiled. Lucasfilm’s Vice President of Film Development Rayne Roberts has been revealed to be co-developing “The Acolyte” “Star Wars” series alongside showrunner and executive producer Leslye Headland, according to her official Lucasfilm profile. Her involvement in the series was previously unknown, nor mentioned in press releases or any Disney Investors day announcements.

READ MORE: Leslye Headland’s ‘Star Wars’ Series Revealed To Be The High Republic-Set ‘The Acolyte’

Here is how Lucasfilm describes her involvement on “The Acolyte”: “Rayne is currently focused on developing new films for Lucasfilm’s theatrical slate, and is also co-developing the upcoming Leslye Headland-created “Star Wars” series for Disney+.”

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Roberts was instrumental in the development and production of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One,” “The Last Jedi,” “Solo,” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” and the animated series “Star Wars Rebels.”

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“The Acolyte” series on Disney+ is officially taking place at the tail-end of The High Republic era, a point in the “Star Wars” universe that will be mostly explored in a wave of new novels and is said to be set about 100 years before the events of the late-’90s-starting “Star Wars” prequels. The female-centric project has been officially called a “mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.”

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It’s a little unclear when “The Acolyte” will begin production or even what year it’s expected to come out.

READ MORE: ‘Star Wars’: Taika Waititi Confirmed To Direct A New Feature Co-Written By ‘1917’ Scribe

Another thing worth noting in the labyrinth of Lucasfilm’s site, which may or not be anything: in the updated press release about all the new upcoming “Star Wars” films, absent in the mention of Taika Waititi‘s untitled “Star Wars” film, is his co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. She has been gathering steam as a screenwriter after earning an Oscar nomination for her work on Sam Mendes‘ “1917” Wilson-Cairns had been mentioned in the official post that originally announced the Waititi “Star Wars” project back in May. Her name was also missing from the press kit for the Lucasfilm presentation from earlier in the month.

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Does that ultimately mean anything? It’s unclear, but we’ll wait and see. Taika is currently busy with Marvel’s “Thor: Love & Thunder” as filming is about to begin next month in Australia. No release dates or details of his “Star Wars” film have been released, and the earliest it could arrive is 2024, given the next theatrical “Star Wars” film, “Rogue Squadron,” from filmmaker Patty Jenkins is not due in theaters until Christmas 2023.