According to the latest issue of Production Weekly, the Leslye Headland series will film in the United Kingdom for six months.
During the summer, DiscussingFilm reported that The Acolyte would film at Pinewood Studios, London from February of 2022. Following the report, myself and other insiders/reporters mentioned that we too heard of an early 2022 start at Pinewood for the High Republic era series. Months later Production Weekly listed The Acolyte for a May start but had the location listed as Los Angeles, and not the United Kingdom as previously reported.
In the latest issue of Production Weekly, they report that The Acolyte is slated to begin filming in May, but not in Los Angeles, but the United Kingdom as we all had originally heard. My sources have told me on several occasions over the past few months that Pinewood was gearing up for a Star Wars production, with pre-production starting recently. and it seems to be for The Acolyte, which was the assumption.
Production Weekly list filming on the series running from May until November, which is pretty in line with current Star Wars TV productions. The Book of Boba Fett filmed from November 2020 until June 2021, Obi–Wan Kenobi filmed from April 2021 until August 2021, The Mandalorian is set to film from September 2021 until March 2022 and Andor filmed from November 2020 until August 2021, but Andor has a higher episode count than each other series, doesn’t rely on the volume, had on location filming across the United Kingdom and was hit with production delays due to the UK’s bad weather earlier this year. It is worth noting that Production Weekly do get information wrong, and this should not be taken as gospel.
The Acolyte recently cast, or is close to finalising a deal with, Amandla Stenberg in the lead role. Stenberg recently starred in Dear Evan Hansen, and is probably best known for starring in The Hate U Give, Everything Everything, The Eddy, and can be next seen in the upcoming film, Bodies Bodies Bodies alongside Pete Davidson (The Suicide Squad), Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Maria Bakalova (Borat: Subsequent Movie Film).
The Acolyte is being written and show run by Leslye Headland. Headland is best known for creating the hit series Russian Doll starring Natasha Lyonne (American Pie). Headland’s other notable work includes Bachelorette starring Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man), Isla Fisher (Catch Me If You Can), James Marsden (Sonic the Hedgehog) and Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect), About Last Night starring Kevin Hart (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Regina Hall (Girls Trip) and Michael Ealy (Think Like a Man), and Sleeping with Other People starring Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) and Alison Brie (Community).
Lucasfilm and Disney have not confirmed a release date, or even a release year for The Acolyte at this time, but the assumption is it’ll release sometime in 2023 along with the upcoming Ahsoka series.