THERE HAVE BEEN a lot of moving pieces through the first few episodes of The Acolyte, and given that the show is telling a whole new kind of story in an era where we’ve never seen a live-action Star Wars project before, it would be OK for some fans to feel a little bit lost. We’re still in the process of learning these characters’s motivations, what their powers all are, where they are, and, quite frankly, what the state of the galaxy far, far, away even is. But among all this, there’s one thing we can all feel certain about: actor Lee Jung-jae is a natural at this, and an absolutely perfect fit for this world.
Best known in the United States for his Emmy-winning role in Netflix’s Squid Game, Lee actually learned English specifically for his role in The Acolyte, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He worked with two different dialect coaches across a period of four months, crediting them with helping to create the character.
And, to all of their credit, it clearly paid off. While there are several Jedi characters in The Acolyte, Lee is our most prominent—and he wonderfully illustrates how confident and, in a way, naive, the Jedi were at this earlier, more stable time in the timeline. Throughout the early episodes, we’ve seen him at a couple different points in the story (Episode 3, you may remember, is a flashback), and while he clearly is dialing into the same channel each time he plays Jedi Master Sol, it’s clear that the guy in the present is living with some regret about whatever it is that went on his past.
Historically, the ‘longing Jedi with a bit of yearning’ is the best kind of performance in that role. Alec Guinness’s take on Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977’s original Star Wars (later retitled A New Hope) was eventually filled out with three prequels and an avalanche more of lore and backstory, but what made his performance so great in that original film was the fact that you could tell just from his mannerisms and how he delivered each line that there was a lot about his past that was hurting him—and that we didn’t know about.
As Sol, Lee captures much of the same energy. He’s confident, powerful, and, in his interactions with Osha (one of two twins played by Amandla Stenberg), understanding and reasonable. The way he slowly delivers his lines help us get to know someone who delicately chooses their words, not wanting to make a mistake—knowing that mistakes have been so costly in the past.
Watching Lee in The Acolyte has been the clear highlight so far. It takes a lot to lure an international acting star into the mix—but Sol has been a role worthy of his abilities.
Lee Jung-jae is a true international screen star—and a major Star Wars fan.
Lee became widely known to Western audiences after his thrilling lead role in Netflix’s mega-hit Squid Game. But he was a massive star (and businessman) in South Korea ever since the ’90s, when he broke through as, first, a model, and then an actor. He broke through early with a role in the 1995 TV series Sandglass, eventually making his way into major South Korean films such as City of the Rising Sun, The Housemaid, and Deliver Us From Evil.
A good movie for Star Wars fans to check him out in may also be The Face Reader, a massive action hit film where Lee appears opposite Parasite star and frequent Park Chan-wook collaborator Song Kang-ho.
As if learning an entirely new language in only four months just specifically for the role wasn’t enough proof that Lee is a massive Star Wars fan, he also told Entertainment Weekly that he was so immersed in this world, and wanted to be so specific with his character, that he didn’t want to take influence from any other film, show, role, or franchise. It was going to be all Star Wars, all the time.
That allowed him to name-check a very specific point of reference for his role in The Acolyte: Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi master as played by Liam Neeson in 1999’s The Phantom Menace.
“I definitely was inspired by a lot of the past Jedi Masters and the wonderful actors that played them. And one of my favorite characters was Qui-Gon Jinn, played by Liam Neeson,” he told EW. “I really kind of tried to find the connective tissue between him and my character, Master Sol.”
Having seen how he plays the character in The Acolyte—with gravitas, strength, and, yes, as with most Jedi, just a tinge of naiveté—we can say that the tissue he was searching for has most certainly been located.
