For essentially the most half, The Acolyte has set itself aside from the remainder of Star Wars—each when it comes to its placement in the timeline, 100 years earlier than the prequel trilogy, and in its need to concentrate on new characters and explorations, reasonably than the acquainted. However that doesn’t imply there aren’t some intriguing connections…
… or, some acquainted faces. Coming into The Acolyte, we have been instructed that whereas the collection was going to be set through the waning days of the Excessive Republic period, just one character from the Excessive Republic novels and comics would seem within the present, Rebecca Henderson’s Vernestra Rwoh. Past that, nobody else we knew. Which is true! From a certain point of view. As a result of whereas we didn’t get another person from the world of the Excessive Republic transmedia initiative in in the present day’s episode, we did truly get somebody we all know from the movies.
In a quick scene on the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Vernestra and a cadre of different Jedi focus on with Grasp Sol the place his homicide investigation ought to take him next. It’s a quick second, however moreover one of many different Masters discussing a possible rogue sect of Jedi being behind this murderer, we see a Jedi from a well-known race be a part of the dialogue: a large-headed Cerean, sporting a model of the white and beige Temple Robes of the Excessive Republic period. And also you assume for a second, it might’t be. However he has these yellow eyes. His hair and bear are gray and longer, however in an identical type. Is it?
Sure. Because the credit of “Day” verify, that’s certainly Ki-Adi-Mundi—performed right here by Derek Arnold—future member of the Jedi Council, famous carer about attacks on Wookiees (which makes his presence in context even funnier, truthfully), and The Acolyte’s first main Star Wars cameo.
Ki-Adi-Mundi’s presence, as fleeting and transient it’s—you actually don’t even discover it’s him till his title reveals up within the credit, it’s not necessary, he might’ve simply been any Cerean Jedi—raises an entire bunch of questions. Not the boring kind, like what this implies for his line in The Phantom Menace concerning the Sith not having been seen in a milennia: actually on this scene, the gathered Jedi, Ki-Adi included, don’t even dare ponder that Mae may very well be skilled by a Sith, leaning in direction of a rogue Jedi as an alternative—and even then, it’s a gathering the place the Jedi go away it having been explicitly instructed to maintain all of this data underneath wraps. Jedi are good liars, and hey, if Ki-Adi-Mundi washes his arms of this investigation from right here on out, by no means to be seen in The Acolyte once more, then effectively, he actually did by no means truly see a Sith both manner.
No, like the chair droids earlier than him, the questions listed below are as an alternative extra existential: simply how previous is Ki-Adi-Mundi right here? That is 100 years earlier than Phantom Menace, and he appears to be like like a grown man right here. Was he actually that previous by the point of the Clone Conflict? We don’t know a lot about Cerean society or biology in Star Wars canon proper now, however within the previous Expanded Universe, Cerean males truly aged at a a lot faster fee than their much-more-populous female counterparts—a male Cerean who lived previous their 60s was thought-about to be virtually historical. However now, due to The Acolyte, it looks like Ki-Adi was pushing a minimum of round 130, 150, by the point he bites it in Revenge of the Sith (from repeated blaster bolts to the chest, in fact, not previous age). And on condition that, how lengthy was he on the Jedi Council? The best way he refers to it right here, he’s not on it but—he’s only one Jedi Grasp amongst many. However what’s it with the Excessive Council and members who sit on it for probably a whole bunch of years? Yoda, Yaddle, Yarael Poof, now Ki-Adi-Mundi… why did nobody ever put time period limits in!?
And on the very least, these questions will not be truly about The Acolyte itself. Which is sweet! His presence right here isn’t like, say, Luke Skywalker or Ahsoka Tano showing up in The Mandalorian, or Mando himself dominating a couple episodes of Book of Boba Fett. It’s a cameo, sure, however not one which fully takes over the narrative of the episode, or is even highlighted as one to the purpose you’re distracted whereas the present pauses to go “look! you already know them!” Ki-Adi’s right here, he has just a few traces among the many Jedi, he’s gone, the episode carries on. A shock to make sure, however a welcome one.
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