The Acolyte: production of the Star Wars spinoff cost Disney $49 million dollars

While most of its details are still a complete mystery to fans, it seems like Disney wants to make sure that we know that The Acolyte, the first Star Wars spinoff to take place in the High Republic era, is going to have a higher level of quality than anything else in the franchise. At least that’s what it looks like, after the company revealed that it spent $49.2 million dollars on pre-production alone.

According to a report by Forbes, this amount dwarves the pre-production of Rogue One, 2016′s Star Wars feature film that’s highly regarded as the biggest spinoff success besides The Mandalorian, by $5.5 million.

And while last year’s Andor had a higher pre-production cost due to the COVID pandemic after taking heavy precautions and following health protocols, The Acolyte still impresses by the size of its budget. It is not far behind some of the latest main films in the series, which included A-listers in some of its main roles and had heavy doses of VFX at every turn.

A new side of the Galaxy far far away, in a different era

As mentioned before, this new Star Wars series is set to take place during the last days of the High Republic era. Disney shared a star studded cast led by Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Dafne Keen (Logan), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Amanda Stenberg (The Hate U Give), Manny Jacinto (Nine Perfect Strangers), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim), Rebecca Henderson (Inventing Anna), Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll) and Dean-Charles Chapman (1917).

Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) will act as showrunner as well as an executive producer for the show, and she will also direct the pilot episode. Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King, and Jason Micallef will act as executive producers alongside others like Rayne Roberts and Damian Anderson. On the other hand, an official synopsis that contradicts all of the supposed leaks from the past few months was also released:

“The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.”

The Acolyte still doesn’t have a set release date, but it’s been announced to arrive exclusively to Disney+.

Source | Forbes