The Acolyte Broke a Major Rule George Lucas Set for Star Wars

The Acolyte is the latest entry in the Star Wars franchise. Set 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace and during the final years of the High Republic, the series offers audiences a new look at the franchise with new characters, settings, and aesthetics. There are still hallmarks of Star Wars, like droids, starships, and lightsabers alongside many familiar alien species, but it looks to give fans something new who might want a break from the Skywalker Saga.

One of the biggest things fans might take away from The Acolyte is the character Kelnacca, who is a Wookiee Jedi. Wookiees are the species of the fan-favorite character Chewbacca. With how popular Wookiees and Jedi are, it is amazing to think that in the franchise’s 47 years of history, this is the first time a Wookiee Jedi has appeared in live-action. Even during the prequel films, which introduced audiences to a whole host of new Jedi covering a variety of species, a Wookiee Jedi was not shown on screen. This is because George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, famously did not like the idea of Wookiee Jedi. Here is how The Acolyte is breaking a major rule of the Star Wars franchise, but before fans get upset, they should know George Lucas also broke the rule.

No New Wookiee Jedi Decree

Wookiees and Jedi have been part of Star Wars since the beginning, as both concepts appeared in the Star Wars movie from 1977. George Lucas clearly had an interest in both, as the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk was first introduced in the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special alongside various members of Chewbacca’s family. Meanwhile, each new film explores the concept of the Jedi in more detail. Return of the Jedi originally was going to have the Death Star II built above Kashyyyk using Wookiee workers, and the Rebels would team up with the Wookiees. Given that Chewbacca was able to fly the Millenium Falcon, Lucas eventually decided to feature a less technology-savvy alien species to sell the heroes to the underdogs, so he created the smaller but just as hairy species, Ewoks.

George Lucas revisited the idea of a Wookiee army in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. This was the first time the homeworld of Kashyyyk was shown since the Holiday Special, and it established the Wookiees as having a strong connection with the Republic and the Jedi Order, particularly Yoda. Yet despite the prequels having many aliens in the Jedi, there never was a Wookiee Jedi. Lucas seemed not to want to feature a Wookiee Jedi. Why has it never been made explicitly clear? However, the writers and artists of the Star Wars Expanded Universe could not resist.

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They introduced characters like Lowbacca, the nephew of Chewbacca, who became a Jedi in the original Expanded Universe stories set after Return of the Jedi. There was also Tyvokka, who was the Jedi Master of Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm Dave Filoni’s favorite character, Plo Koon. George Lucas always had a complicated relationship with the Expanded Universe material. While he typically was okay with most of it, he never considered it canon to his work and would make changes however he saw fit, which meant Lucas would ignore elements he did not like.

In 2004, Lucas made a decree that there would be no more Wookiee Jedi. This was confirmed by Dark Horse Comics’ then editor, Randy Stradley, as they held the Star Wars publishing rights at the time. This meant that Obsidian Entertainment, which was making the video game Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, had to scrap their plans to prevent the companion character Hanharr from becoming a Dark Jedi and instead make him just a Wookiee bounty hunter.

Not only did this restriction mean no more new Wookiee Jedi characters could be created, it also impacted all the other Wookiee Jedi characters, like Lowbacca, was exiled to Dagobah in The Swarm War, the final chapter of the Dark Nest trilogy and was not mentioned again before the original Expanded Universe was established as non-canon by Disney and Lucasfilm in 2014 under the Star Wars Legends banner.

George Lucas Broke the No Wookiee Rule First

Despite George Lucas making the decree of “no Wookiee Jedi,” he backtracked on this first. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the sixth episode of Season 5, “The Gathering,” focused on a group of young Jedi padawans going on a ritual trial to build their own lightsabers. One of the Jedi padawans introduced was Gungi, a young Wookiee Jedi. This episode and character were greenlit when George Lucas still had control of the Star Wars franchise, showing that even George Lucas was finally willing to accept the idea of a Wookiee Jedi.

The episode is notable as it aired on November 3, 2012, just five days after Disney announced their purchase of Lucasfilm. It was the first piece of Star Wars media to air after the deal. Gungi’s appearance in The Clone Wars could be seen as a symbolic passing of the torch, moving on from the rules George Lucas had set on certain elements of the franchise and showing a new era was upon fans – even though Gungi was a George Lucas-approved creation.

Given that Wookiees are one of the most beloved alien species in Star Wars, it was no surprise that Gungi became a fan-favorite character. Fans spent a decade wondering about Gungi’s fate following the cancelation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the knowledge that the Emperor wiped out most of the Jedi. Fans hoped Gungi was one of the Jedi that survived Order 66, and those hopes were confirmed when Gungi appeared in The Bad Batch, a follow-up to The Clone Wars. Gungi appears in the sixth episode of Season 2, titled “Tribe,” where The Bad Batch helps return Gungi to his people on Kashyyyk. His status after that is unknown, but given Wookiee’s long lifespan, Gungi could appear in the upcoming film about building a new Jedi Order with Rey in the lead role.

The New Era of Wookiee Jedi in Star Wars

Despite some fans’ belief that Disney has been disrespecting George Lucas’s vision for Star Wars, they still honor and follow many of his rules. There was no influx of Wookiee Jedi following Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm. Aside from Gungi, a George Lucas creation, a Wookiee Jedi did not appear until 2021, when the High Republic publishing initiative started, and it seemed to be as it was far enough away from the canon of the Skywalker Saga to not step on Lucas’ vision. Burryaga Agaburry was introduced in the novel Light of the Jedi and was the first new Wookiee Jedi to follow Disney’s purchase of the Star Wars property.

Burryaga Agaburry is a very sensitive Jedi who wields a blue crossguard lightsaber. He also tends not to like social gatherings, as many people cannot understand him. Burryaga Agaburry was front and center in the marketing for the High Republic, catching many fans’ eyes and becoming a fan favorite. This Star Wars era is also the setting for The Acolyte, which features a new Wookiee Jedi, Kelnacca.

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Kelnacca is played by actor Joonas Suotamo, who took over the role of Chewbacca from Peter Mayhew in the live-action Star Wars film. Now Suotamo gets to step into the role of a Wookiee Jedi. Unlike Burryaga Agaburry or Gungi, this is the first time a Wookiee Jedi has appeared in live-action, which is a big deal.

While George Lucas might have ruled “no more Wookiee Jedi” in the 2000s, similar to Wanda Maximoff saying “no more mutants” in House of M, he himself even reversed this course with Gungi. Now, the creators of the High Republic era of stories have used this new untapped history for the franchise to introduce and explore never-before-seen concepts or ones previously not allowed, like Wookiee Jedi. With the popularity of the Wookiees and Jedi, it wouldn’t be a shock to have The Acolyte‘s Kelnacca become a fan favorite, particularly among kids. The latest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, is streaming now on Disney+.