As part of their Star Wars cover story, Vanity Fair got to speak with The Acolyte showrunner and creator Leslye Headland who offered more insight into the live-action High Republic era series, and Headland revealed some exciting new details on the upcoming project.

During their discussion Headland revealed that writing on the series, which she’s been working on for two years, is largely complete and that the series is now currently in its casting phase. Recently it was revealed by The Illuminerdi that The Acolyte is currently casting after it production start was delayed from May to October. Headland goes on to say that The Acolyte takes places roughly 100 years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which refutes past rumours of the series taking place either 50 years or 200 years before Menace.

When discussing the era The Acolyte is set during, Headland said the following, “We’re taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don’t know much about. My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, ‘Well, how did things get to this point?’ How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?” We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment, the Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it’s almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about, the idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that’s how little they’re getting into skirmishes.”

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