By George & Josh Bate
The highly anticipated new Star Wars series The Acolyte is just around the corner, and the show’s promotional campaign is in full gear. Various short previews of The Acolyte have been released by Disney and Lucasfilm, but one stands out for its interesting parallel to a key moment in The Clone Wars and its homage to a Harrison Ford classic.
The preview for The Acolyte below (courtesy of Star Wars Coffee) sees Amandla Stenberg’s lead character Mae plead to her former master Sol, “I didn’t do it! Believe me!” Mae says this after she’s seemingly ran away and been cornered at the end of a tunnel or cave.
If this moment looks and sounds familiar to Star Wars fans, that’s because it is. In The Clone Wars – Season 5, Episode 19: “To Catch a Jedi,” Ahsoka Tano finds herself in a similar situation as Mae. Ahsoka, having been accused of executing a bombing of the Jedi Temple, runs away from those trying to bring her in for questioning, including her master Anakin Skywalker. Ahsoka, like Mae, ends up cornered at the end of a tunnel as she pleads her innocence. This moment from The Clone Wars can been seen below.
The similarities between these moments from The Acolyte and The Clone Wars are striking and draw inspiration from a Harrison Ford classic. In 1993’s The Fugitive, Harrison Ford’s Richard Kimble is accused of murdering his wife and goes on the run from a team of U.S. Marshals, including Tommy Lee Jones’ Samuel Gerard. An iconic moment from The Fugitive sees Ford’s character try to evade Jones’ team of U.S. Marshals, which culminates in a showdown in a tunnel (just like the ones in The Acolyte and The Clone Wars). Ford’s Kimble character, akin to Mae in The Acolyte and Ahsoka in The Clone Wars, is cornered by authorities trying to bring him in when he pleads his innocence. This moment from The Fugitive can be seen below.
George Lucas famously once said, “It’s like poetry. It rhymes.” And, indeed, these moments in The Acolyte and The Clone Wars very much rhyme. The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland has expressed her adoration of The Clone Wars, citing “The Wrong Jedi” as her favorite episode from the series. Headland stated that she leans into aspects of The Clone Wars and the prequel trilogy in her new Star Wars show, and this new promotional footage most certainly shows that.
Star Wars: The Acolyte premieres June 4 on Disney+.