Jodie Turner-Smith may soon be booking a flight to a galaxy far, far away: The actress is in talks to join Amandla Stenberg in Disney+’s Star Wars series The Acolyte, according to our sister site Deadline.
No details on Turner-Smith’s character are available yet, but we do know that The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller set about a century before The Phantom Menace, in the final days of the High Republic era. Per the initial description, the series will unearth “a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers.” The project was first announced back in 2020.
Stenberg (Dear Evan Hansen, The Hate U Give) was officially cast as the lead in July. Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland will serve as executive producer, writer and showrunner on the series, which is slated to start production this fall. No premiere date has been set.
Turner-Smith has made a name for herself with roles in well-received indie films like Queen & Slim (opposite Daniel Kaluuya) and After Yang (opposite Colin Farrell). After making her TV debut on True Blood, she went on to recur on TNT’s The Last Ship and Syfy’s Nightflyers. She also played the title role in the British miniseries Anne Boleyn, now available to stream on AMC+.
Which upcoming Star Wars series are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments.
Seeing a lot of good stuff on her resume. (And, ya know, Nightflyers.) Hopefully The Acolyte is just as good.
I’m down!
…I’m sorry, why was she playing Anne Boleyn, unless I missed something rather important in history class? Or was it, like, a modern “reimagining” or something?
Because they cast her in the role.
The perfect response.
Anne Boleyn didn’t look like Genevieve Bujold, Natalie Portman, or Natalie Dormer either. Also, if people can get on board with “Hamilton”, it’s not that far of a stretch to do the same when the historical figures aren’t singing or rapping in a stage production.
The reverse would NEVER happen but white people are expected to grin and bear it.
Grin and bear it? You sound like you’re coming at this from the perspective of someone with a bigoted sense of race encroachment. As if there was a nonconsensual taking of a proprietary interest of the white race.
Sorry he is right with his comment on her playing Anne Boleyn. No one called out racism when people complained about Scarlett Johansen been cast in Ghost in the Shell or Tilda Swinton being cast in Dr strange. So the double standards of people like you Bill is just getting old.
@ American. Her roll in Star Wars has nothing to do with her part in Anne Boleyn. As an actress if she is offered a part in any T.V/film She has every right to accept it. The fault does not lie with her as an actress but with the studio, who cast her. Which is the same issue with both Scarlett and Tilda been cast outside of the characters source material. However at least these were fiction characters and not actual people from history.
She is a good actress and look forward to what she will bring to the roll and franchise.
Saw her in that Michael B. Jordan movie, and I wasn’t that impressed with her acting. Who knows…maybe she’s improved. The media seems to like her.
As I recall, MBJ was really the only person who had the opportunity to show off any real acting in that movie.
Golly, I wonder why she was hired.
Because she’s a very good actress
It’s ok to say,” I’m racist and don’t like that a black woman was hired for a role”. We get it, we already know there are plenty of people like you.
No need to hide behind your poor sarcasm.
See, a lot of these people want to be racist while being able to deny being racist. It’s a real contortionist act.
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Golly… gonna really rile up those who get offended when people of color are hired into the Star Wars universe. Can already see it happening even here in this story comments. It’s despicable.
It is especially interesting considering Star Wars is known for having multiple different planets … like did someone actually think everyone was white om those… even though we talk thousands of planets and moons ect.
Nobody had a problem with Billy Dee Williams or Samuel L. Jackson so there goes that argument.
There were people vocally offended on racial grounds by John Boyega being cast as a stormtrooper in “The Force Awakens”.
Just going to sit back and enjoy watching all the racists pop up and whine about a black woman being cast in Star Wars.
I really really liked her in the Last Ship.