Amandla Stenberg’s character uses the Force but does not fight like a Jedi.
The Acolyte may be a Star Wars series, but compared to other stories from the universe, it uses armed conflicts quite sparingly. In the first three episodes, there have only been two fight scenes. Lead actress Amandla Stenberg explains in an interview why the fights are nevertheless important for The Acolyte.
Warning: Spoilers: If you haven’t seen the first episode of the series yet, you’d better not read any further.
That was the hardest
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The Acolyte: Disney shows how the fights in the new Star Wars series were created
Amandla Stenberg plays the two sisters Osha and Mae in The Acolyte. As Mae, she fights against two Jedi masters in the first three episodes of the series, using both throwing knives and Force abilities. For Stenberg, the fights were the biggest challenge, but not only because of the elaborate choreography:
The fight sequences were really challenging, but the hardest part for me was not necessarily learning the choreography or the acting, but putting it together. It was for Leslye [Headland] really important that every beat in our fight sequences feels like another point in the story. That all parts of the fight have a certain emotionality.
That’s why at the end of my training I thought: Okay, I learned how to strike and I learned how to throw the knives.
And now I had to figure out how to put emotion into my face while doing it. And that was probably the hardest part.
The story of the series will continue to be told during the fights and the emotions that are the reason for Mae’s campaign of revenge will be shown. The story of the twins has now been examined in more detail, but some mysteries remain even after the third episode. For example, who the mysterious master could be. Fans have already speculated about this:
The Acolyte takes place a good hundred years before the Clone Wars and the subsequent transformation of the Republic into the Galactic Empire. At this time, many things are different, which is also shown by Peter’s personal highlight, the droid Pip.
We also asked the cast of The Acolyte in an interview about their personal favorite era in the Star Wars universe. You can hear the actors’ answers in the video above.
