By George & Josh Bate
If you’re like us, your mourning for the premature cancelation of The Acolyte has you eagle-eyed for any shred of a reference to the divisive Disney+ series. Those with their ears perched may have noticed a neat The Acolyte reference in the first new Star Wars movie in seven years – The Mandalorian and Grogu.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Mandalorian and Grogu
After Din Djarin and Zeb raid Janu Coin’s estate, the two flee with the captured Imperial warlord aboard a landspeeder. They make their way across a barren desert back to the Razor Crest, where Mando’s ship is having mechanical issues.
Din Djarin races to the cockpit and tries to get the ship out of there as fast as he can amidst incoming stormtrooper fire. But he struggles to do so, forcing him to shout back to Zeb to help him fix the ship.
Zeb replies to Din Djarin’s request by stating that he is “not a meknek.” Meknek is a profession introduced in The Acolyte that Osha occupied before caught up in her sister Mae’s plot for revenge. The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland reveals that Osha working as a Meknek came from an idea about R2 units either not being invented yet or not being prevalent yet, which made organic beings undertake risky jobs.
Zeb’s mention of ‘meknek’ may only be a sliver of a reference to The Acolyte, but, as big fans of the cancelled series, we’ll take it. It’s encouraging that, nearly two years after the show premiered and was shortly thereafter cancelled, strands of it continue to pop up in canon.