Review by C.J. Bunce
It’s pretty common now to see Star Wars on the small screen show a pattern. The series arrives then it’s often a year or more until the action figures hit the shelves as well as other tie-ins. Right now action figures for The Acolyte are appearing in stores (like here), and we now have our look at the creation of the series itself in the new book The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte, available now here at Amazon. It’s part of a great library of art books we’ve reviewed over the years at borg—The Art of The Force Awakens, The Art of Rogue One, The Art of The Last Jedi, The Art of Solo, The Art of The Rise of Skywalker, The Art of The Mandalorian: Season One and even a look at the Earthbound destination in The Art of Galaxy’s Edge).
This time Star Wars fans get a look at the concept artwork for the first ever live-action story set in the High Republic. Take a look inside the book below, courtesy of publisher Abrams Books.
Kristin Baver interviewed series creator Leslye Headland, who developed the story of twins forced apart 100 years before the Lucasfilm movies in a setting with real costumes, props, vehicles, and environments that hadn’t been thought of yet. Readers will learn how Headland along with a writers room including Jason Micallef, Charmaine DeGrate, Jasmyne Flournoy, Eileen Shim, Claire Kiechel, Kor Adana, Cameron Squires, Jocelyn Bioh, and Jen Richards created a world with both Jedi Knights and a dark conflict different than what fans had seen before.
Baver pulls from the Lucasfilm archives concept art, character, vehicle, weapon, and creature designs to show how production designer Kevin Jenkins, costume designer Jennifer Bryan, and creature designer Neal Scanlan created the characters inhabited by actors Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Charlie Barnett, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Jodie Turner-Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, Manny Jacinto, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, Margarita Levieva, Lauren Brady, Leah Brady, Harry Trevaldwyn, and David Harewood.
That lived-in look Roger Christian designed for the original 1977 Star Wars movie was discarded in favor of a more clean and polished look, to help visually establish to viewers that the New Republic had very little ties to the rest of the franchise stories. You can see this via a concept painting that looks very much like it came from Syd Mead, and the crew acknowledged that was not the direction they were aiming for.
This is a rare opportunity to explore the High Republic from a visual standpoint–a view of practical props and costumes, since the series was cancelled after only one season, and somewhat like Disney’s Willow series (which doesn’t even have episodes available for viewers to watch anymore), it’s unlikely this part of the Star Wars galaxy will be explored again in some viewers’ lifetimes.
Does it look more like The Phantom Menace or The Last Jedi? Readers will quickly notice from their own perspectives what looks and feels like Star Wars and what doesn’t. Headland directed the costume design team to add color to the Jedi costumes, which seem to merge together some of the decades-old Japanese inspiration for the Jedi costumes fans are accustomed to, with something new.
It will be an interesting project to compare the designs in this book to those of The Art of Star Wars: Andor, coming this summer from Abrams and already available for pre-order here. With some common players from the production across Lucasfilm, it’s going to be nearly impossible not to see some commonality, such as these designs, which could be out of the first season of Andor:
It’s an interesting exploration into unseen territory for Star Wars, all told by the creators who made it happen.
Don’t miss this next volume in the Star Wars library of concept art. In a hardcover volume with book jacket, The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte is now available this month for the first time here at Amazon.
