Star Wars: The Acolyte delayed as High Republic show enters production


Disney and Lucasfilm are working on a gargantuan amount of Star Wars content for Disney Plus. Alongside the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian, the studios are working on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Visions Season 2 and more.

However, while the heavy flow of Star Wars TV releases has trundled along without issue, Disney may have a bump in the road. While the most popular series — Mandalorian and Ahsoka — may be fine, the most intriguing project has been reportedly delayed: The Acolyte.

Disney reportedly delays The Acolyte

According to The Illuminerdi, production of the upcoming Disney Plus series has been heavily pushed back. While filming for the series was expected to start soon, it would appear that filming has been swapped out in favour of other shows.

With Lucasfilm’s release schedule packed with the near filming of Andor, Ahsoka and a mystery High Republic project, the year may be too packed with projects. However, this doesn't mean that there are any issues with the upcoming show.

When Lucasfilm does start filming the show, a rather long shoot is expected to take place. It’s unclear if the show will make use of Volume, the cutting-edge tech that is used on The Mandalorian. If it does, then filming could be over quite quickly. However, if not, then filming could take up to eight months, wrapping in May 2023.

Of course, if filming takes until May 2023, the release date for The Acolyte could be far later than expected. Depending on the length of the shoot, and the length of post-production, we may not see the series until late 2023 or early 2024.

Read More: Sony heavily delays Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and its sequel

The High Republic surprise

The delay of The Acolyte does come after leaks of a surprise Star Wars show entering production. Despite an already packed release schedule, Disney and Lucasfilm has jammed in an unannounced project that starts filming very soon.

Known only by its codename ‘Grammar Rodeo’, the upcoming series is aimed at a younger audience. Described as ‘Stranger Things in Space’, the show is expected to be a fun, adventurous mystery set in The High Republic era.

This comes as part of a new push to heavily advertise The High Republic era, a replacement of the now-non-canon Old Republic. The Acolyte is also set in this period of Star Wars lore.

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