No, Star Wars: The Acolyte Hasn’t Just Retconned The Phantom Menace

Star Wars: The Acolyte, Star Wars’ newest Disney+ TV show, will officially release with a two-episode premiere on June 4, 2024, and, despite rampant speculation, the show will not be retconning the history of the Sith from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. As one of the most thrilling inclusions in the lineup of Star Wars’ upcoming TV shows, The Acolyte will be set in the Star Wars High Republic Era and explore the Jedi Order prior to the events of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. However, that does not mean changing the prequels.

Updates on The Acolyte are ongoing, but The Acolyte’s full trailer breakdown clearly shows a red lightsaber flying through the air. While there is already some concern circulating that this may mean a retcon to the assertion in The Phantom Menace that the Sith have been extinct for a thousand years, that likely isn’t the case. In fact, this only supports what the prequel trilogy has already shown.

The Sith Clearly WEREN’T Extinct For A Thousand Years

Although the Jedi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy believe that the Sith are extinct, so much so that they are incredulous when Palpatine reveals himself to be a Sith Lord despite Darth Maul and Count Dooku’s acts throughout The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, audiences have always known the Sith remained. The very nature of Palpatine’s infiltration of the Republic demonstrates that the Sith were undercover but still a threat. Palpatine’s own master, Darth Plagueis, also makes clear the Sith persisted.

This actually highlights the issues with the Jedi in the prequel trilogy. As Luke Skywalker said in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Jedi Council suffered from issues with hubris. They believed they had defeated the Sith, so their defenses were down. This is particularly confusing because the Jedi know the dark and the light will rise to meet each other (arguably, balance in the Force), so they should have expected that the Sith, or some great darkness in the Force, lingered. Either way, this is therefore not a retcon; it supports what Star Wars has already made clear.

The Sith Encountered Jedi Over Many Times Before The Phantom Menace

Even before Palpatine and Darth Maul arrive on the scene in The Phantom Menace, it’s clear that the Sith and the Jedi had crossovers with one another over the supposed thousand years when the Sith were eradicated. In fact, the Sith’s red lightsabers alone indicate that these encounters continued to happen. Sith apprentices get their red lightsabers by hunting down and killing a Jedi, taking their lightsaber, and ‘bleeding’ the kyber crystal within it, a process which turns the color of the original crystal red. This in and of itself reflects that the Sith remained in some capacity.

The red lightsaber depicted in The Acolyte trailer even showcases that this takes place prior to the show, as this lightsaber would have been constructed in the same manner. While the timeline is unclear, meaning that its construction may have been immediately followed by The Acolyte, it is at minimum a reminder that the Jedi and Sith are linked – and, again, the perception of the Jedi in The Phantom Menace and the remainder of the prequel trilogy should not be taken as fact. After all, the Jedi Council are the very ones who had a Sith under their noses.

The Acolyte’s Sith-Jedi Encounter Is Very Easy Indeed To Explain

There are myriad reasons this perception in The Phantom Menace could exist without it meaning that canon is changing or The Acolyte will be retconning the events of the prequel trilogy. For one, the Jedi Council has already been clearly shown to be flawed. If it wasn’t the hubris of their belief that they’d successfully defeated the Sith forever, it could just as easily be that they were concealing the truth. After all, they’ve proven themselves to be deceitful in other ways, at one point faking Obi-Wan’s death even to Anakin, and at another, asking Anakin to spy on Palpatine.

While a lie so significant would be a much bigger blemish for the Jedi, it would make sense. For the Order to continue, parents needed to agree to their younglings being taken and raised as Jedi. That is a much easier sell if the Jedi present it as though the gravest danger has been removed and the Jedi are solely about peace. Moreover, the Jedi could have been in denial, as they are in the prequel trilogy. Perhaps the evil that rises up in The Acolyte doesn’t claim the name ‘Sith,’ making it easier to ignore.

There are also graver possibilities, such as that no survivors remain to recount the ‘return’ of the Sith, if it is to be one. In any case, Star Wars is not soon going to gut the prequel trilogy. If the franchise can make siblings kissing make sense, it can surely handle unpacking what exactly the Sith were doing for all that time. While Star Wars: The Acolyte will surely bring new light to the Star Wars prequel trilogy, it isn’t retconning the history of the Sith.

Star Wars: The Acolyte starts streaming June 4th on Disney+.

All Star Wars TV shows & movies are available to stream on Disney+