Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? If you’re a Star Wars fan, you sure have. The scene in Revenge of the Sith where Palpatine recounts the tale of the Sith Lord who could partially master death to Anakin Skywalker is one of the most famous moments from the prequels and it also saw a lot of renewed attention in the lead-up to The Rise of Skywalker as we thought it was going to prove key to the Emperor’s resurrection. In the end, though, it only got a brief reference. However, a future project on Lucasfilm’s slate could finally follow up on this iconic speech and reveal the real story about Plagueis.
This past week, the studio unveiled a ton of new Star Wars TV shows that are on the way to Disney Plus, with one of the more mysterious being The Acolyte. The only brief official description of the project we’ve got so far describes it as following “the emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” Insider Daniel Richtman may have now offered up some more concrete info on the series, though.
According to intel shared on his Patreon page, The Acolyte will feature Darth Plagueis and his apprentice, the young Sheev Palpatine. And while that’s yet to be confirmed by the studio, it does line up neatly with what Lucasfilm has revealed about the show so far. The only thing is is that Palps is canonically born in 84 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) while the High Republic ended around 100 BBY. So, some altering of the timeline would need to be done, or else Darth Sidious will be very young on the show.
Of course, George Lucas’ unmade Star Wars: Underworld TV series was going to explore Palpatine’s origins, so it’d be interesting if Lucasfilm were to dust off this idea for The Acolyte, which has Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland as showrunner. No release date has been given to the project as yet, but 2022 seems like a good bet at this point. Watch this space for more.
