After acquiring Lucasfilm in 20212, fans eagerly awaited what the studio was going to do with the Star Wars franchise. Announcing that Kathleen Kennedy, a longtime collaborator of both Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas, was getting bumped up to the president’s chair, all eyes were on where she’d take the property next.

RELATED: Star Wars: High Republic Era Explained

Unlike the recent sequel trilogy, spin-off movies, or even the other beloved Disney+ Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan, or Ahsoka, Star Wars: The Acolyte finds itself in a unique position: It isn’t married to the “Skywalker Saga” as the main series of franchise films has been renamed, nor is it even set during the same time period as the rest of the franchise which dates itself as BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, as in everything set before A New Hope) and ABY (After the Battle of Yavin, or everything after the first Death Star was destroyed). It’s BBY, technically, but hundreds of years BBY.

This opens the franchise up to broadening its own horizons, redefining what Star Wars has been in general. Being set so far in the past, in the era of the High Republic, means all new lore, new room for new characters, and the possibilities of a visual aesthetic that won’t be beholden to the franchise’s distinctive 1970s-era science fiction look. It also busts the franchise’s storytelling potential wide open.

This is the era when the Jedi were actually the knights they had long since dwindled from being by the time The Phantom Menace begins, sitting around in pajamas and debating the Midichlorian count of a little bowl-cutted kid who shouted “Yippee!” every other line. During this era, the Jedi had defeated (or so they thought) the Sith menace and were acting as galactic peacekeepers on a grand scale in an era when the Galactic Senate functioned and there were still territories to explore in the Outer Rim.

In fact, this element is part of what Russian Doll creator, Leslye Headland, wants to explore. Intrigued by how the characters were depicted in, of all movies, The Phantom Menace, she wants to dive into what caused the Jedi to have gone so far downhill, from a sort of Knights of the Round Table in space, to the martial arm of a failing democracy when audiences first see them, with only characters like Qui-Gon Jinn bridling against how they limit themselves.

What this era also means is that the only possible characters from the “Skywalker Saga” that could even make an appearance in the new show would be ones like Yoda or Maz Kanata, two of the only characters that approach being a millennium (or more) in age and so would have been around several centuries before the prequels even took place. The High Republic, which is the newest sandbox created by the Lucasfilm brain trust for artists and creators to play around in and already complete with a series of novels and comics, is rife with possibilities.

Creators can tell stories that go beyond characters by the name of Skywalker, be it Luke, his father, or a strange girl who steals his family name. Now, that doesn’t mean that the whole thing can’t devolve into Great-Great-Great-Grand Pappy Skywalker vs. some equally early Palpatine (since they have to move toys after all), but it’s a far more open playground than ever before.

Speculation as to what the title, Star Wars: The Acolyte, means has led fans to theorize that it’s referring to a Sith Acolyte. Jedi apprentices are called Padawans as established by The Phantom Menace and reiterated in such recent shows as The Book of Boba Fett, leaving the only other side to be that of the Sith themselves. How this could play out in a story set several centuries before the prequels, but still within the millennium that Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi mentions the Sith having not been seen for is anyone’s guess, but the story’s sure to be an exciting one.

Headland, along with her producer, Kennedy’s second-in-command at Lucasfilm, Rayne Roberts, made sure the series will feature a female lead, currently rumored to be played by Amandla Sternberg. This will put it in the tradition of Rey and Jyn Erso. Headland revealed that she would put some her own perspective as a queer creator into the mix, something that the casting of a non-binary performer like Sternberg would seem to confirm.

As of yet, no release date has been announced.

MORE: Star Wars: The High Republic Trailer Teases A Whole New Side Of Star Wars