Star Wars: The Acolyte looks like Watchmen set in the High Republic

It’s been a while since our last new Star Wars show. But the long drought since Ahsoka is finally coming to an end as Disney debuted the first trailer for The Acolyte on Tuesday. The new series is set during Star Wars’ High Republic era and will debut on Disney Plus with its first two episodes on June 4.

The trailer starts by showing us a Jedi talking to a class of younglings, asking them to reach out to the Force and say what they feel. From there the focus quickly shifts to reveal a murder plot: Someone is killing off Jedi all around the Galaxy. The main thrust of the show, it seems, is to investigate these murders and capture the culprit behind them. One of the things that makes Star Wars: The Acolyte unique is that it’s set during the High Republic era, a time about 100 years before The Phantom Menace.

The Acolyte doesn’t quite look like anything else in Star Wars, at least based on this first trailer. It’s dark and moody, and with all the focus on the gritty Jedi murder-mystery investigation at its core, it’s hard not to feel like it’s got quite a strong Watchmen influence. Beyond that, between the Force-based martial arts we see in the trailer and the High Republic setting, there should be plenty of other new and unique vibes in The Acolyte. If that’s not enough for you, then the trailer even gives us a brief glimpse of Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), a Wookiee Jedi master.

The series is created by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and stars Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Manny Jacinto (Top Gun: Maverick), Dafne Keen (Logan), and Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix).