Hunger Games star Amandla Stenberg is in talks to join a brand new live-action Star Wars series for Disney+.
According to a report from Variety, the 23-year-old is set to star in the upcoming prequel series titled The Acolyte.
In the franchise’s expansive lore, an acolyte is a Sith apprentice that trains under the reigning Sith Lord.
Details surrounding Amandla’s role has been tightly under wraps but the series has been described as a “female-centric mystery-thriller.”
The new series is set to take place during the final days of the High Republic – which is about 50 years before the events of The Phantom Menace.
The highly-anticipated series has been described as an immersive story with a “queer perspective”.
Back in 2020, Disney and Lucasfilm announced that lesbian creative Leslye Headland would head the series.
Her previous work includes the critically-acclaimed Netflix series Russian Doll – which she co-created and executive produced.
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Earlier this year, Headland expressed her excitement to bring a queer point of view to the series in an interview with The Advocate.
“I’m excited to do the type of character work that I normally do and pieces that take place in regular-day America, which is where most of my work has been,” she explained.
“I love those types of characters, so being able to explore them in Star Wars is something that I was very surprised everyone was into.”
Headland went on to say that she wants other queer Star Wars fans to see themselves in her stories.
“There’s just no way that me being a queer woman is not going to be reflected in my work. I could try not to do it, but why would I? It just feels like a natural extension of what I do,” she said.
“I think that because storytelling, at its core, is always going to come down to either the personal or emotional through-line to your characters, your identity is important.
“And like I said, mine is just going to be in my work, whether I’m explicitly dealing with it or not, it’s always going to be there.”
The show is set to begin production sometime in 2022.
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