Star Wars: The Acolyte Might Feature Some of the Greatest Light Saber Duels in the Franchise, and Other News

The latest revelation about the still-in-development show The Acolyte hints at the possibility of featuring one of the most epic lightsaber duels ever.

This comes from the latest episode of Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatched podcast which aired on 27 July, featuring Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen and Charlie Barnett. While they spoke about some other best costumes from across the Star Wars galaxy, the actors also shared that they hope to outdo some of the best lightsaber battle scenes that the audience has ever seen. This includes Phantom Menace’s iconic sequel featuring a lightsaber battle between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul.

Manny Jacinto said, “If you loved that sequence with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, I think you’re going to enjoy this show.”

“I will say too — not to shade, but we have a lot more tangible physical moves than I saw,” Barnett added. “And that fighting is badass as it is. There’s a lot more grounded work that goes into our stunt training and our stunt performances. We have an awesome stunt team too that are doing so much without cables, without CGI, without a lot of effects, and it makes the fight scenes so much visceral, truly.”

They also drew attention to the inspiration drawn from Asian martial arts in the choreography of the action sequences. Barnett spoke about the importance of keeping things real during the filming and while practising the stunts even caused accidents like them being hit in the head, multiple times.

Keen emphasised how sabers have been focused on the show, with a lot of body-to-body combat sequences. At the same time, she explains, there are gun sequences as well. Regardless, as she implied, if you are a fan of those lightsaber duels, looks like you’re in for a treat with The Acolyte.

The Mandalorian’s Cobb Vanth star enjoyed working with the Jawas more

In other news, Timothy Olyphant, who played Cobb Vanth in The Mandalorian Season 1, says that he enjoyed shooting with the Jawas more than he did with the Grogu. Speaking with Looper in a recent interview, Vanth said:

“Baby Yoda — with all due respect, it was fun to work with him, he was a class act, but doing a scene with the Jawas was the most exciting. That was a throwback to my childhood. I don’t think it occurred to me how special it was until [I acted alongside the Jawas]. I had a little bit of a pinch myself moment where I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is my whole childhood, and quite possibly why I’m an actor.”

While Grogu became a meme for the current generation, one can understand why Olyphant would be all nostalgic about the Jawas. The Jawas were introduced in the very first Star Wars film, A New Hope, followed by their reappearance in Episode VI, Return of the Jedi. These inhabitants of Tatooine have left an indelible mark on many a ’70s, ’80s and ’90s kids.