Squid Game star to lead The Acolyte Star Wars series

Squid Game star Lee Jung-Jae will play the male lead in The Acolyte, a new Star Wars series coming to Disney+.

Star Wars began its life as a humble, no-less groundbreaking trilogy, remaining the starting point of an obsession for generations to come. In the 2000s, we got the controversial prequel trilogy, which seemed to derail the franchise.

In the 2010s, Lucasfilm returned with a new sequel trilogy, capping off the Skywalker Saga with a topsy-turvy story that seemed to do more harm than good.

However, the galaxy far, far away has found a comfortable home on Disney+, particularly after the success of The Mandalorian, not to mention The Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars: Visions and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Squid Game star joins The Acolyte Star Wars series

Lee Jung-Jae, who played Seong Gi-hun in Netflix’s stratospheric, monster-hit Squid Game, has joined The Acolyte as the show’s male lead, as reported by Deadline.

The actor will star alongside Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Amandla Stenberg and Jodi Smith-Turner, with Leslye Headland set to serve as the show’s director, writer, exec producer, and showrunner.

As detailed by the outlet, The Acoloyte is “a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.

“In the real universe of Star Wars, an acolyte can refer to individuals with force abilities who learn from a more experienced Sith Lord.”

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Headland teased: “In the prequels, Mace Windu says: ‘There’s no way that the Sith could have reemerged without us knowing about it.’ And Yoda says, ‘Hard to see, the dark side is.’

“He acknowledges that this is a part of the Force that has been dormant, or at least hidden from them, for so long. What I immediately wondered about this particular period was: Who is practicing it?”

The Acolyte currently doesn’t have a release date.