By George Bate
The star of the upcoming Star Wars television series The Acolyte has been confirmed. Amandla Stenberg will lead the upcoming Disney+ show from head writer Leslye Headland. Headland previously wrote two seasons of Russian Doll for Netflix.
Stenberg, who uses both she/her and they/them pronouns, garnered praise for their role in The Hate U Give, for which they earned several awards nominations. They officially announced the news on Instagram this afternoon, posing with a statue of R2-D2 and sporting a Darth Maul shirt.
Check out their post here:
Per Lucasfilm, this new series is set at the end of the High Republic era, the time before The Phantom Menace. The Acolyte is said to focus on emerging dark side threats, so it’s possible, if not likely, that Stenberg will portray a villain or a Sith of some kind.
The Acolyte is set to go into production later this year, but an official release date is yet to be announced.