What Is The Acolyte (701)

The hosts discuss the upcoming Star Wars series, The Acolyte, and compare the current description of the show to the original one released in December 2020. They note that the current description is more vague, while the original one had more specificity and hinted at a mystery thriller set in the High Republic era. They speculate that there may have been changes or reshoots to the show, or that the current description is intentionally keeping things under wraps. Welcome to Tatooine Sons: A Pop Culture Podcast, the only fan podcast to name a canon Star Wars creature and to be endorsed by the writer and the director of The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson. There's a new live actopmStar Wars series. It debuts tomorrow. What? Well, not really. Wow. That's crazy. But anyway, when you're seeing this, it's going to debut tomorrow. And it seems like a really good time to relaunch the podcast as well. Be careful not to choke on your aspirations. So question, guys, describe. I'll start with you, Sam. Describe your thoughts about the acolyte in one word. Oh, one word. Uh, I find your lack of faith disturbing, anxious, anxious, anxious. What about you? Maybe. Nate? Um, can I use hyphens? It's a trap. Sure. Sure. You'd get no room. As usual, cautiously optimistic. I was going to say that, but I wasn't sure if hyphens were allowed. Yeah, definitely. Definitely that. All right. Well, we'll go into a lot more details here on the show as well as get an update on our new release schedule. That's all next. This is Tatooine Suns. We believe that pop culture is the mythology of this generation, that there is a story. It is written on our souls, and that these myths speak to that story. And that is why we are talking about a new entry into the Star Wars mythology, the Acolytes. Yeah. Are you excited to be back? We're doing the podcast again. Yeah. It's been so long. Since Godzilla Minus One. Well, that smells cheesy. Well, since you saw Godzilla Minus One. You were very late to the party. December was the last time we did a podcast. You were late to the party. I've had a few of you ask questions, so I guess we'll explain. It's been senior year. Senior year for college, senior year for high school. That can tend to take up a lot of bandwidth. A little bit. I have. So you made the decision to go on hiatus. It wasn't the original plan. We planned on doing something like once a month, but it just got to the reality where we needed to pause. So we did. And now you've graduated. So congratulations, Samuel LeHuy. Congratulations. Thank you. Summa Cum Laude from the University of South Alabama, and the most comic book college you could have gone to. I tell you. It's all red, white, and blue and everything. Yeah. And the Jaguars. The Jaguars. That's right. You graduated from high school. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. 4.0. Valedictorian of his class. I know. It's crazy. He's old school. I didn't give a speech, though. He's the only kid in his class. He's also a class clown. He's also the... I was the worst and the best in the class. Absolutely. Great kid. Don't get cocky. Pretty exciting stuff. But let's do this. Let's get into this. I mean, we've got a lot of updates. We're going to give a whole lot more conversation at the end about the future of the podcast and what we're trying to do on that. But I want to get right into our conversation about the Acolytes. Let's talk a little bit about the details of the series. For those that may know that there's a story out there, a show that's coming out, but haven't really dove into the details of it, this is your opportunity to get the update that you need. Here's the official description that's currently, and I say that importantly, it's currently the description on StarWars.com. It says, in Star Wars, the Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master, played by Lee Jung Jae. I don't think I pronounced that correctly. Every word in that sentence was wrong. I don't know if you ever pronounce names correctly. I apologize. Anyway, Jedi Master Sol is actually what his name is. That's a cool name. Against a dangerous warrior from his past, played by Amandla Stenberg. It is Amandla. That is not a typo. Okay. Amandla. It's an interesting name. It's a cool name. As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems. What are your initial instincts based on, or your reaction to that description, BP? This isn't negative, by any means. This is not. This is not a negative statement by me, but I feel like I've heard this description when it's talking about something Star Wars like a hundred times. I think that's, again, not negative. I think that's just because they aren't wanting to give a lot away. Okay. Not even the trailers have given us much. We did get a lightsaber whip. Well, actually, we did. And Leslie Hedlund, the showrunner of the show, has said that there could potentially be a lot of misdirection in what we're seeing in the promos. When is there not when it comes to Star Wars? Well, it's going to be big with that. It feels almost too generic. Is that what you're kind of suggesting? Yeah. Pretty much. What about you, Sam? What do you think? Yeah. I mean, my thoughts are kind of along the same line. I think that that doesn't give us very much to be excited for. We're doomed. Had I not seen some of the trailers and promo clips and sneak peeks and stuff, I wouldn't be very excited for the show just from that description. But it's kind of hard to really generate interest from a couple sentences. Well, I think that we're going to be able to help generate some interest in this show based on our conversation today, because as I was researching and putting the notes together for this episode, I became a lot more excited about the Acolyte and what's going on. And one of the things that really made it intriguing to me was that the description of the show has shifted from the original description that was released in December 2020. It's not like the Agatha title. No, this is not like where they're changing the title so that they can come back and say it was Agatha all along. This is not going to go the way you think. Which is a great show. I'm excited about that show. But anyway, here's the original description that was when the show was announced in December of 2020. Do you guys remember where we were when this was announced? Do you guys remember December 2020? Wasn't that the Disney Investor Connect call? That was Orlando. Yeah, that was Orlando. They were doing like a TV version, a streaming version. Yeah, they were basically like the upfront, but like broadcasted to the public. Absolutely. And a lot of what's happened has not... A lot has shifted since that. Lots of people have lost their jobs too in that time. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Here's the original description from December 2020. It says, the Acolyte is a mystery thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated. What are some of the things that you notice about the differences between those two descriptions? Did you guys pick up on any of the differences there? There's one big one that stands out. I mean, there's some specificity to it. I mean, they mentioned High Republic. They mentioned that there's a Padawan, there's Sinister Forces, it's a mystery thriller. The other thing is much more vague than that in general. The other one kind of is a blanket description, kind of, this is Star Wars. If you like Star Wars, you're probably going to watch it. This one feels more like it's trying to bring in a more specific audience, basically, like bringing people in, like maybe somebody that likes a mystery thriller, but not a fan of Star Wars, kind of bringing that people in. Well, here's the thing that stood out to me. In the current description on StarWars.com, it says that there's a shocking crime spree, which kind of fits the mystery thriller thing from the original description, where a respected Jedi Master, it's pitting a Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past. And it's been well accepted that Amanda Stenberg's character, Mae, is actually the former Padawan of Jedi Master Sol. So you've got this Jedi Master being pitted against his former Padawan. But in the original description, it says that they actually team up to solve the mystery on this. What do you think's going on here? Did they do a major shift in this in the four years, four years, almost three and a half years since this was announced? Or is there something else going on here? What are your thoughts on that? I think that it's a bit, it could be a bit of both. I mean, reshoots happen all the time, changes happen all the time. We've seen it happen before with Star Wars. I mean, just look at Solo. Well, that happened because you had a completely different writer than the producer brought in. Right. But things happen with shows and creative changes along the way that kind of just feel like it would fit better. So I think that could be it. But it also could be just a type of, I guess, not misdirection, just trying to keep things more under wraps than originally before. Yeah, that's fair. What do you think, Sam? Yeah, I mean, it seems to me that, I mean, a lot has happened in Star Wars in the past four years. You know, fan desires change, things like that. So I think what happened is they're probably just taking into account the environment, you know, what the people want. I don't like you either. I think that they're probably, they just shifted based on that. What if both of these descriptions were absolutely accurate? Are you brainless? I mean, it wouldn't be that hard to do. Well, let's look at this. Let's talk a little bit more about some details before we get into that. So the show's being showrunner, the writer, the primary, like, driving force, the Jon Favreau or the Dave Filoni or the Tony Gilroy of this show is Leslie Hedlund. She's most well known for Russian Doll. None of us have seen Russian Doll. No. I know that. It's a fascinating story, but probably not your most family friendly presentation in that. So that may not apply to this. It's going to be starring again, Amandla Stenberg. She's playing May. But what's interesting is there's indications she could be playing another character in this. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Here's the description of that character. It says, May gets swept up into a sinister mystery, one that puts her into the center of a conflict in unexpected ways. This deal is getting worse all the time. Do you get anything from that or is it too vague still? It's very vague. It's very vague. It's very vague. It's nothing at all. Do you guys remember Amandla Stenberg? She's in... She was in... No, she was in Hunger Games. The original Hunger Games. She was in the original Hunger Games. She was a little girl. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. She's done a lot more since then. Of course. But then, you know, of course, you've got also, you've got, again, I can't pronounce these names. I had to research this stuff before we started the show, but I didn't. Lee Jung Jae playing Jedi Master Sol. It says, Master Sol is a wise, highly respected, powerful Jedi Master, strong in the ways of the Force, who is going through emotional conflict. The actor Lee Jung Jae is most well known for playing or being the star of Squid Game. Oh, no. Okay. What are your thoughts on this character, the Jedi Master Sol? Yeah. I mean, he's, again, pretty standard, but it is interesting that he's going through emotional conflict when Jedi are supposed to be emotionally detached from everything. Detached from emotions. Yeah, that's interesting. So that's an interesting touch. I mean, it probably shows how the High Republic Jedi were different than what we're used to seeing. Yeah. I was about to ask, do we know when that code of emotion was kind of put in place? Right. Is this the lead up to the splits of the Jedi Order? Is this going to be kind of the origins of the rules against the dark side and the fall of the Jedi Order? Pretty much. No, that's an interesting idea because in the High Republic era, which we'll end up talking about a little bit more in a few minutes, but in the High Republic era, it seems much less black and white than it does when we get to the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and such with the, you know, Only Sith, The Illuminati, and the Forbidden Attachment and all of that. So there's going to be some attachment issues that are exposed in this show that actually lead to some of those choices with that. Of course, you've got an amazing actress that everyone should be in the nerd world should be very familiar with, Carrie Ann Moss, who's going to be playing Jedi Master Indara. Master Indara is a Jedi Master and all it says is of great physical and mental skill. Of course, Carrie Ann Moss plays Trinity in the Matrix films, all four of them, which by the way, Matrix Resurrections is a much better film than you give your credit for. You should go back and watch it again. What do you think about, now she's, we've probably seen more of her than anybody else. Yeah, not unless she was the star. I did, honestly, because we saw her in the sneak peek after Phantom Menace and we saw, definitely got a lot of examples of that physical ability in that sneak peek. I felt like Trinity in Star Wars. Exactly. It just felt like Trinity in Star Wars, which is not a problem. I'm not complaining. It was great. It was actually a pretty good scene. I was pleased. It looked like the choreography for the fight scenes was done well. Production value was good. She was a cool character. Yeah. Amanda Sandberg's character, May, maybe, was cool too. I mean, she seems interesting as well. Yeah, with the nice work that she did. A dark side of Aspen is kind of what it seems like and which we've seen before, but this was a bit different. Absolutely. I'm excited to see how that goes. I think that there's something dramatic that's going to happen earlier in the series that's related to Jedi Master Indara. We'll talk about that here in a minute. Then next, you have Daphne Keene, who's playing Jekki Flown. Now, Daphne Keene is in Logan. Oh, that's right. She's in Deadpool Wolverine 2. We've heard rumor she's going to be in Deadpool Wolverine 2. It's not been confirmed. She has to be. That's the thought. It says, Jekki is the Padawan Apprentice now to Master Sol. That could be what is being referenced in the original description where a Jedi Master and his Padawan are on an investigation. That could definitely be what that's about. It says, although she is young, she projects calm and conducts herself with maturity. So, she's pretty much the exact opposite of her character in Logan. Yeah, definitely doesn't have a lot of calm in Logan. Definitely doesn't have calm in Logan. But interesting. It's nice to see another Padawan. We haven't gotten a young Padawan story in live action in quite some time. I don't really consider Episode 2 Anakin to be that young Padawan. He's basically moving out of Batman. And so, pretty much in live action, we haven't really seen that at all. We've gotten Sokon Clone Wars. We've never seen a traditional Padawan Batman. We did have a Sokon Clone Wars, and that was, of course, a wonderful relationship. So, seeing that in live action in this way, and also her makeup is fantastic for the creature that she's whatever species she's playing. Yeah, I can't remember the name of the species, but it's a species that's actually introduced in the High Republic. So, it's really well done. Like I said, the production value of the show seems to be top notch, which is not unusual for most Disney Plus shows. Yeah, I mean, I'm curious to see what it was like to be a Padawan back in this time. That's one of the things that's got me most interested about this show is the time period that it's taking place in that it's set in. I want to see how different things were back then. That's cool. Manny Jacinto, like this guy, he's most known for The Good Place. Nathan, you watched a little bit of The Good Place, didn't you watch? Did you watch all of that? Yeah, I watched all of it. Okay. So, he's from that. I can't remember who that is. He's playing Kamir. It says, Kamir is a former smuggler who now makes his living as a trader, procuring unusual things and enjoying a life of leisure. So, we've got a smuggler character, not a whole lot that stands out in that one. This one is an interesting character. Rebecca Henderson, again, from Russian Dolls, so there's a connection there, is playing Jedi Master Vernestra Rowe. Now, that's a big deal, because Vernestra Rowe is actually a High Republic character from the High Republic Publishing. I feel like I've heard of her, too. She's actually a Padawan that just becomes a Jedi Knight early on in the stories of the High Republic. It says she's an elder Jedi Master who has ascended the ranks of the Jedi from a teenage prodigy to a leader in the Order. She became one of the youngest Jedi Knights in a generation at age 15, solidified her status as a prodigy when she took Imri Kantaris as a Padawan the next year with a purple-bladed lightsaber that can change into a light whip. That's what you saw. That's what it is. So cool. It's so cool. She led with unwavering faith in the Force in devotion to the Jedi Order, but in a year after the fall of Starlight Beacon, which is a major... Which that was where the Light of the Jedi was at, that book. We listened to that book. We did, yeah. While mourning those lost in the destruction, including her own Padawan, Vernestra pulled back from the Order and shifted her focus to heal herself. Any thoughts on Vernestra Rowe? Nathan, you talked about the light whip. It's controversial, but everything in Star Wars is controversial. Some people think it's... How is that controversial? They're trying to apply science fiction laws and physics to it. It's a lightsaber. Let it be a whip. Exactly. It sounds cool. And it's going to sell more toys, and I'll buy them. I don't care. It's going to be cool to see, and I think the cosplay of that character is going to get really... Oh, that's going to be awesome. What do you think about this character, Sam? Yeah, I mean, at least we've got some backstory on this one, so we kind of got to expect... Well, you get the backstory from that. The fact that they're in a... Right, right. I think it'll be interesting to see where she's at in the story. I think it'll be really cool for people who have kept up with the publishings to see where this character is at at this point, too. But for us, it's just going to be a neat character to see what they do with, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And then Junus Suotomo is playing Kalnaka, a Wookiee Jedi who is a loner who lives a solitary life. That's kind of cool. We're going to get a Jedi Wookiee in a live action. I mean, always loved Jedi Wookiees. Probably going to be my favorite character, minus the little pocket repair droid. I think that's probably going to win in my book. What about the droid attack on the Wookiee? He'll probably be my second favorite. Sam, what do you think about the fact that Junus is returning as another Wookiee, not as Chewbacca, but is going to be able to have a major role in this? I mean, I don't know what other roles he can play other than Wookiee of that stature. So, no, I think it's cool. I think the only other Wookiee Jedi, I think it was the one from Clone Wars, I don't remember his name off the top of my head, but he was just a Padawan. Didn't he show up in Bad Batch or Clone Wars or something later? Yeah. So I think it'll be cool that we'll be seeing a full-on Jedi Knight of a Wookiee. Let's talk a little bit more about this High Republic situation. You know, one of the characters that seems to be very prevalent in this show is Jedi Master Bernestra Rowe, which we talked about earlier. He, again, plays a major role in the High Republic publishing initiative, which if you're unfamiliar with the High Republic, the High Republic era began several hundred years before the events of, a couple hundred years, two to three hundred years, I think, before the events of the Phantom Menace, and they carry on in sort of the golden age of the Jedi Order and its role within the Republic and things like that. And it's been, up until this point, exclusively a publishing initiative, books, comics, Young Adele, except for Young Jedi Adventures, which is an animated show for, like, preschool-aged children that's set in this era as well. But the reality is we don't have any live action, we don't have any other major animations. Nathan, what are you getting ready to say? We did get a game. Copy that, Black Leader. What game? We had two games. Oh! We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did. We did.