Meet the Jedis, Wookies, and Wookie Jedi of Star Wars: The Acolyte

Disney is gearing up for an extremely Star Wars summer. On June 4, it will premiere The Acolyte, a new live-action Star Wars series set during the High Republic era, before even the prequel movies, when the Jedi order was at the height of its powers and the wicked Force-users known as the Sith were just starting to emerge. The trailer for this one looks pretty intense:

Because this is set in a whole new era of the Star Wars universe, there's little chance of running into anyone we know. With that in mind, let's meet some of the main players in this interstellar drama:

Logan veteran Dafne Keen plays Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon

One of the younger characters on the show is Jecki Lon, a Jedi-in-training serving under Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae). Jecki is part-human and part Theelin alien, as you can tell by her heavy face makeup above. "It was an hour and a half, two hours in the morning," star Dafne Keen told Entertainment Weekly about applying that makeup. "It was honestly really fun. I loved the whole process of it. It was really freeing not having my face. It was really nice to just show up at work and be in someone else's face. It was really enjoyable and it completely changed my approach to the character once I was in the makeup and changed the way I moved and everything. And also having horns on you is actually a safety hazard, so I can’t hug people on set, which is quite weird."

"I thought she was going to be really methodical and cold and calculated, and then as soon as I was in that makeup, she became much more still methodical and a perfectionist and high achiever, but with much more of an ingenuity and a curiosity and a true love for the craft that is being a Jedi. Which was really interesting because I am someone who moves their eyebrows a lot, and not having eyebrows completely changes the expression on your face. And not having eyebrows gave me a sort of sweeter appearance, which completely changed the character in a way."

Unlike the relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, another famous master-Padawan pair, there's no rivalry between Jecki Lon and her master. "She's very much like, 'No, he's the master and I'm the Padawan and he's perfect. And everything he says, I have to follow to the T,'" Keen said. "She's very cool and I have some very cool fights I do with the lightsaber. I really love her. She's a great character and was really fun to play."

People might recognize Keen from her role as X-23, aka mini-Wolverine, in the X-Men movie Logan, or her turn as lead character Lyra in HBO's His Dark Materials series. She's on her way up the acting ranks, and will get to work alongside some true icons in The Acolyte.

The Matrix veteran Carrie-Anne Moss plays Jedi Master Indara

Carrie-Anne Moss, an action movie icon thanks to her turn as Trinity in The Matrix, stars in The Acolyte as Jedi Master Indara, and it looks like she'll be up to her old tricks. “She is very much inspired by Trinity,” showrunner Leslye Headland told Empire. “I personally wanted to see someone who had the highest status you could imagine in a Force-fu fight – somebody that would come in and you immediately would be like, ‘Oh, that’s the most powerful Jedi in the room.’ And that’s Trinity.”

For her part, Moss doesn't at all mind this invocation of her Matrix character, not when the script for The Acolyte is so strong. “I felt that a few times in my career with some of the big things I’ve done — Memento, The Matrix — where you’re talking to the filmmaker and you just go, ‘Oh, they totally get it,’” Moss said. “Within my soul and my spirit, to get to play this Jedi Master and train for the fight was [an] amazing experience. A part of me forgot how much I love action. I love it. It’s hard. But I was just really thrilled that I could do it, and I wanted to do it well. ‘Gimme another take! Gimme another take!’”

The Acolyte will also give us something we haven't seen before in a live-action Star Wars project: a Wookie Jedi.

Joonas Suotamo plays Kelnacca, a Wookie Jedi

Furry, scraty voiced Wookies have played a role in the Star Wars universe since the beginning, but we've never had a lead Jedi Wookie character in a live-action Star Wars show. That changes with Kelnacca, played y actor Joonas Suotamo, who also played Chewbacca in the newer Star Wars movies.

“Ever since [I was] five years old, I've been fantasizing about being a Jedi, like every kid,” Suotamo told Empire. “When the word ‘Jedi’ was first mentioned [in talks forThe Acolyte], I felt really excited – like a little kid who finally gets his favorite toy on his birthday.”

Like Chewbacca, Kelnacca communiates through growls and gestures, although the characters onscreen know what they're saying. “Kelnacca being a Jedi, that sets certain expectations to how you carry yourself in the line of duty,” Suotamo said. “There are certain assumptions that can be made as to whether he lets his emotions take control of him to the extent that Chewbacca would, for example. It was very interesting to bake that into the character and try to personify that on screen.”

Watch the trailer for Star Wars: Tales of the Empire

A month before The Acolyte debuts on Disney+, Disney is dropping a wholly different Star Wars show: Tales of the Empire will consist of six animated short films focused on everyone's favorite space fascists. Watch the trailer below:

Tales of the Empire premieres on May 4 and The Acolyte premieres on June 4. Welcome back to the galaxy far, far away.

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