The Acolyte is an upcoming American television series created by Leslye Headland. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, set at the end of the High Republic era before the events of the main Star Wars films. Amandla Stenberg and Lee Jung-jae star in the leading roles. Headland expressed interest in working on the Star Wars franchise by the end of 2019, and was developing a new series for Lucasfilm by April 2020. The series title was announced in December, while filming began in October 2022 and wrapped in early June 2023. The eight-episode series is scheduled to be released on Disney+ in 2024.

Star Wars is an American epic space-opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions, and themed areas, comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe. In 2020, its total value was estimated at US$70 billion, and it is currently the fifth-highest-grossing media franchise of all time. The original film (Star Wars), retroactively subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), was followed by the sequels Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), forming the original Star Wars trilogy. Lucas later returned to the series to direct a prequel trilogy, consisting of Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). In 2012, Lucas sold his production company to Disney, relinquishing his ownership of the franchise. This led to a sequel trilogy, consisting of Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), and Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

All nine films of the “Skywalker Saga” were nominated for Academy Awards, with wins going to the first two releases. Together with the theatrical live action “anthology” films Rogue One (2016) and Solo (2018), the combined box office revenue of the films equated to over US$10 billion, which makes it the second-highest-grossing film franchise of all time. Additional upcoming films are in the works, including an untitled movie from Taika Waititi planned for 2023 and Rogue Squadron directed by Patty Jenkins, which currently does not have a release date.