Star Wars series The Acolyte will feature 'a lack of guns'

When it comes to Star Wars projects on either the big screen or small, The Acolyte — which will be coming to Disney+ in 2024 — promises to stand out in several ways. Not only is it the most diverse franchise project ever, and not only is it a Star Wars show with no war it in, but the more intimate individual battles hope to set the bar for action sequences taking place in a galaxy far, far away.

To this point, the bar for lightsaber battles has been the "Duel of the Fates" drenched face-off between Darth Maul and the tag team duo of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace, and it turns out that well-choreographed clash — featuring flips, twists, and a definite martial arts flair — served as an inspiration for the action sequences that will be seen on The Acolyte.

Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, and Charlie Barnett stopped by EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast before the current SAG-AFTRA strike to talk all things Acolyte, and they have a message for fans of that epic Darth Maul duel.

"If you loved that sequence with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and Darth Maul," says Jacinto, "I think you're going to enjoy this show."

Concurs Keen: "You'll love this."

Their costar Barnett goes even further when comparing the fight scenes of The Acolyte to that Phantom Menace melee. "I will say too — not to shade' but we have a lot more tangible physical moves than I saw in that fight," says Barnett, who, like Keen, is playing a Jedi. "As badass as it is, there's a lot more grounded work that goes into our stunt training and our stunt performances."

For Barnett, that reliance on practical and physical work will come through on the screen. "We have an awesome stunt team. Doing so much without cables, without CGI, without a lot of effects — it makes the fight seem so much more visceral. Truly. I mean, I know I've been hit on the head a couple times."

Keen also admits to being bonked on her noggin on multiple occasions. "All of the fight training that we've gone through is so heavily influenced by samurai." Only this time, laser swords are subbing in for, you know, actual swords.

And that choice of lightsaber weaponry also appealed to Keen. "I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I will just say it. There's a lack of guns, which personally as someone who loves fighting and stunts and stuff, I love. Because it gives you that body-to-body choreography — that dance feeling. It actually looks like a real fight as opposed to just I point and I shoot, which is kind of an easy cop out in a way. We get a lot of that body-to-body."

Of course, the less you use blasters, the more you must rely on fight training and choreography, both with and without lightsabers. "We have a lot of the sabers," says Keen. "And Chris Cowan and Mark Ginther and Daren Nop have choreographed all of these wonderful, wonderful stunts in such a beautiful way — it's visually stunning. We watched some stuff the other day and it was just gorgeous. And then we have a bunch of fights as well where there are no sabers where it's just full on. It's also really fun and does look really gritty and real. It feels like a fight."

And that fight will begin in 2024 on Disney+.

To hear our entire interview with The Acolyte's Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, and Charlie Barnett, check out the latest episode of the Dagobah Dispatch.

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