Leslye Headland created The Acolyte's lead role for Amandla Stenberg

The excitement around the upcoming series The Acolyte is starting to get palpable. Fans of The High Republic era are ecstatic to see this era in live action for the first time on screen. Series star Amandla Stenberg can definitely feel the excitement. In a recent interview with C Magazine, they spoke about how series showrunner Leslye Headland picked her for the role and teased very few facts about the series.

Stenberg opened the interview, discussing how Headland came to their house to pitch the role with series concept artwork. She said:

"All the artwork was conceptualized with my face, and Leslye was like, ‘So I’ve been working on this for about three or four years for you. I don’t know what I’m going to do if you don’t do it. No pressure.’ So I was sent to the moon, of course."

After joking about Disney hacking their phone making sure they don't give spoilers, Stenberg did share a little about The Acolyte, saying:

"In the context of the Star Wars universe, it’s a time of great peace, theoretically. It’s also a time of an institution, and it’s a time in which conceptions around the Force are very strict. And I think what we’re trying to explore within our show is when an institution has a singular conception of how power can be used…we try to provide a lot of different perspectives and answers to that question. The idea is to kind of honor the ethos of Star Wars and ideas around the Force and also challenge them, hopefully harmoniously."

As a High Republic fan, it's incredibly exciting to see this show just on the horizon. From the get-go, it sounds like Headland knew precisely what she wanted for the show, specifically going after Stenberg for the main role. With the show rumored to have a summer release, The Acolyte will be here sooner than we know it.