There was a time when a new Star Wars spin-off would have been greeted with outpourings of hype and anticipation. Those days are sadly long over, and fans burned my misfires such as Ewan McGregor ’s stuttering Obi-Wan Kenobi and the dreadful JJ Abrams/Rian Johnson prequel trilogy will approach The Acolyte ( Disney + , Wednesday) with caution rather than enthusiasm. Could this finally be the Jedi jamboree we’ve been looking for? The answer is a big, honking “maybe”.
The Acolyte was created by Lesley Headland, a showrunner on Netflix’s New York-set time travel dramedy Russian Doll. That series was a delightful Mobius strip, brimming with wry wit and mind-bending twists. The Acolyte is something else entirely – an earnest but not wholly successful attempt to introduce a kung-fu action movie sensibility to Star Wars.
Think of it as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Jedi – a galaxy-hopping, high-kicking romp that has good intentions but which does not always land its punches and which ultimately inhabits a state of glided mediocrity (the budget for the eight-part season is estimated at north of $180 million). Kicking off with an elaborate fight scene involving a Jedi Knight and a masked assassin, The Acolyte is fast-paced and crammed with superhuman feats of martial arts. But the script lark sparks and the big mystery supposedly threaded through the show (according to Headland) turns out to be a predictable game of joining the dots.
READ MORE Star Wars: The Acolyte review – .