Star Wars Confirms What The Acolyte Title Really Means

"Star Wars: The Acolyte" has been something of an enigma since its announcement. Because it takes place in the High Republic era of the Star Wars timeline, it isn't directly connected to any previous movies or shows. Even the novels and comics set during the era don't seem that important to the show's plot, as "The Acolyte" takes place near the end of the High Republic and just 100 years before "The Phantom Menace."

The title itself has been another piece of the puzzle. Who or what exactly is the Acolyte? Showrunner Leslye Headland explained in an interview with Empire. "It's a position, essentially, that someone is going to fulfill, or step into," she explained. "We know with the Sith that there is a Master, we know that there is an Apprentice. But in deep EU [Expanded Universe], there's a concept of an Acolyte, which is underneath Apprentice. So that is where I got the title from."

The idea of a Sith Acolyte goes back to the Old Republic era of the Star Wars Legends timeline. The position is explored in the Knights of the Old Republic video games and the Darth Bane novels, which deal with the fall of the Sith Empire and the creation of the Rule of Two. However, the Acolyte concept isn't unique to Legends. It's also been part of the official Star Wars canon, even before the announcement of Headland's show.

A Dark Acolyte, also known as a Sith Acolyte, is exactly what Headland described to Empire. It's essentially the lowest rank in a dark side hierarchy. Before the institution of the Rule of Two, Acolytes were trainees who had not yet achieved full Sith status. The most direct parallel would be a Jedi Padawan. Later in the timeline, the title of Acolyte belongs mostly to people below the current Sith apprentice.

Though the word "Acolyte" hasn't always been used to describe these characters, they've existed in nearly every era of Star Wars — both canon and legends. Count Dooku has several during the Clone Wars, including the Sith assassin Asajj Ventress and the Zabrak warrior Savage Opress. The Imperial Inquisitors who serve Darth Vader in the Imperial era also fill the role, as they're given a modicum of training in lightsaber combat and the dark side of the Force, but not enough to make them actual threats to Vader or Palpatine.

The Rule of Two's nature encourages a constant development of Acolytes. The apprentice is meant to seek the power that the master holds, and their most reliable way of seizing that power is by getting a loyal follower of their own. This is what Darth Vader tries to do with Luke Skywalker in "The Empire Strikes Back."

The easy assumption is that Amandla Stenberg's Mae, ostensibly the main character of "The Acolyte," is also the Acolyte herself. She seems to be a dark Force user who's likely serving a greater, more sinister master, which would fit the bill. However, Stenberg and Leslye Headland hesitated to confirm that theory when asked.

"It's a lot more complicated than that," Stenberg said in the same interview with Empire. "Which is the point of the show. Hopefully, if we did our job right, the show makes it an interesting interrogation into what it means to be on the light side or the dark side."

"The Acolyte" might not end up being about the Sith at all, but rather about some other, similar dark sect of Force users trying to topple the Jedi and the Republic. In "The Phantom Menace," the Jedi claim that the Sith have been "extinct for a millennium," suggesting that the order has not encountered a Sith Lord for that amount of time. Of course, the Sith were still active in the shadows, but they avoided Jedi attention. It should be interesting to see what kind of dark side threat the Jedi will face when "Star Wars: The Acolyte" premieres on Disney+ on June 4, 2024.