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Over the past week, sets have started being prepared on Madeira Island, Portugal, for a Star Wars production. Local outlets are claiming that the mystery Star Wars project is a film, even days after I exclusively revealed that the production taking place in Portugal is in fact the Leslye Headland created series, The Acolyte. Sources told me that the Star Wars project prepping to shoot in Portugal was The Acolyte, locals have been in touch with me claiming to have seen PDX signs (something I revealed was being used on Acolyte sets in December) and as my readers should know, PDX stands for Paradox, which is the codename for the series, and now I have more evidence of the production being The Acolyte, as various vehicles arriving to the sets have been spotted with Paradox signs on their dashboards.
Currently there are multiple sets being on Madeira Island, Portugal, being prepped for The Acolyte. Filming is supposedly due to take place today at Ribeira da Janela, with the location closed until March 14th. Filming is also set to take place at São Vicente in the coming days, and Fanal Forest between March 19th and the 21st. Given the openness of each area, we’re hoping that we’ll be able to get a good look at the scenes being filmed over the next handful of days.
I exclusively revealed that The Acolyte began filming towards the tail end of October last year, which Deadline backed up earlier this week. Most of the filming for the series has taken place behind the walls of Shinfield Studios, Berkshire, with scenes also being filmed at Pinewood Studios, London and Arborfield Green, Reading. The only on location shoot we’ve seen of the series was at the Brecon Beacons National park located in Wales, which I broke was the location being used, along with other locations in Wales being used including Merthyr Tydfil, and Resolven. Filming on the series is expected to wrap up sometime next month.
As we’ve been wrapped up in filming details for the series recently, we forgot to mention that last week Deadline reported that Karyn McCarthy (Ballers), who was hired to be an executive producer on The Acolyte, had filed a lawsuit against Lucasfilm for breach of contract. McCarthy was reportedly pursued by Lucasfilm and Apple to work on their respective projects, The Acolyte and Sugar, with McCarthy choosing the galaxy far, far away, and thus turning down work on Apple’s project, only to be removed two weeks later “without reason, without justification.” However the most interesting tidbits for us fans that comes from the lawsuit (which you can read part of here) is that McCarthy was required to work overseas for at least one year, and probably several years in total as The Acolyte is planned to run for multiple seasons, and that McCarthy was given a season one “bible” as well as a series overview, which revealed the plans and structure in regards to The Acolyte story for future seasons.
The Acolyte, which is set during the High Republic era, will follow a former padawan and her Jedi master as they investigate a series of crimes, but encounter forces more sinister than what they’ve imagined. The series stars Amandla Stenberg (Bodies, Bodies, Bodies) as the lead, as well as Lee Jung Jas (Squid Game), Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Jodie Turner-Smith (After Yang), Charlie Bennett (Russian Doll), Rebecca Henderson (Inventing Anna), Dean Charles Chapman (1917), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) and Margarita Levieva (Daredevil: Born Again).
The Acolyte will release within the first half of 2024, and will have a presence at this years Star Wars Celebration, which kicks off on April 7th.
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