New Star Wars prequel show The Acolyte coming to Disney+ this summer

Disney is returning to the galaxy far, far away with year with at least two new Star Wars TV shows. One, Skeleton Crew, is about a group of kids who find themselves in control of a space craft and have to use it to make their way home. The other is a little more adult in content: The Acolyte is set some 50 years before the Star Wars prequel movies, and will depict the burgeoning influence of the Sith, dark Force users who will eventually topple the Republic and turn it into the Empire.

We don't have an exact release date for either of these series yet, but Collider has learned that The Acolyte will be along sometime this summer. The show will follow a former Padawan learner and her one-time Jedi master as they investigate a series of sinister crimes. The Acolyte is set further back in the Star Wars timeline than any other show and movie yet made.

Before The Acolyte, the Star Wars prequel movies were set the earliest. Disney is shining the spotlight on those movies with a limited theatrical rerelease of The Phantom Menace this May:

Hayden Christensen thinks the Star Wars prequel movies have "held up well"

We've also seen prequel veteran Hayden Christensen pop up as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Disney+ series like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. Before that, Christensen last played Anakin in 2005's Revenge of the Sith, and it sounds like he's enjoying this revival of all things prequel trilogy.

"The journey that I’ve been on with Star Wars over the last 20-plus years--it's been a wild ride, and where we're at now is really meaningful to me," Christensen told Empire. "I think that those movies have held up well over time. It feels like vindication for the work that we did. Everyone that worked on those movies thought that we were part of something special. We all wanted to do our very best work, and we cared a lot about it. And so to see the response from the fans now, it's very cool."

I wouldn't be surprised if Christensen came up as Anakin one or two more times before he puts away his lightsaber for good. In the meanwhile, the next Star Wars show on the horizon is the third season of the animated series The Bad Batch, which premieres on Disney+ on February 21.

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h/t Gamespot