‘The Acolyte’ Star Reveals Why She Doesn’t Use Lightsaber: “The Series Relies Upon Very Specific Tropes and Archetypes”

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ is the next chapter in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. The show arrives on Disney+ on June 4th and it promises to be a completely different adventure.

The show will be set during the High Republic Era, also known as the Golden Age of Jedi Order due to their overwhelming numbers, and it seems that Headland is trying to use that setting to prove that Jedi don’t have the monopoly on Force and that they do too can be bad guys when context is given.

One of the most criticized aspects of the show currently is the choice of weapons seen in the show. A few days ago, social media was on fire with fans mocking the upcoming inclusion of “lightwhip” as one of the weapons about the debut in live-action. Now over the course of several trailers, teasers, and marketing materials, Amandla Stenberg’s Mae, aka one of the main characters in the show, can be seen carrying knives instead of a lightsaber, despite being force-sensitive.

Stenberg revealed the reasoning behind her weapons of choice in her latest interview with Empire Magazine:

Well, being in the High Republic era opens up the terrain a bit for what kinds of weapons we might be interested in. The series relies upon very specific tropes and archetypes, and we wanted to follow in that lineage. So that’s why those knives are there. I also just think they’re super cool. It’s a time in the galaxy where the way people use the Force is… in canon, it’s very expansive. It doesn’t necessarily have the more rigid conceptions that it might have later in the Galactic Republic. So that provides us the opportunity to maybe explore the different way this character relates to the Force.

Leslye Headland already revealed that High Republic books are one of her greatest inspirations, we can expect plenty of references to them as well as re-inventing of some of the most notable concepts in the show.

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ arrives on Disney+ on June 4th with the first two episodes. Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

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