The Acolyte Just Brought a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Character to High Republic Canon
Just how old is Ki-Adi-Mundi? The Acolyte just made that a much more difficult question to answer.
This Star Wars: The Acolyte article contains spoilers.
The Acolyte hasn’t been shy about introducing new Jedi characters so far—and a few Sith-aligned Force users, too. While fans of the Original Trilogy are used to seeing only one or two Jedi on screen at a time, The Acolyte is set before even the Prequel Trilogy, meaning Order 66 hasn’t happened yet and there are a lot more Jedi Knights running around the galaxy and going on missions together. In fact, in episode four, Master Sol leads a whole expedition of Jedi Knights to the Outer Rim planet Khofar to seek out Wookiee Jedi-in-exile Kelnacca before Mae can kill him.
Now, because The Acolyte takes place 100 years before the start of the Prequels, most of the Jedi featured in the series aren’t ones we’ve seen before. The High Republic book and comics fans will instantly recognize Master Vernestra Rwoh, but that’s not a name folks who stick to just watching the movies and TV shows are likely to know. Of course, movie fans do know Yoda is hanging out somewhere in the Jedi Temple during the High Republic era since he’s hundreds of years old, but showrunner Leslye Headland confirmed to us he won’t appear in the first season of the show. That said, while the first three episodes were very light on classic Jedi characters, the fourth episode does bring back one legend from the Prequel Trilogy era!
Ki-Adi-Mundi
First debuting in The Phantom Menace in 1999, the Cerean Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi makes a surprise cameo in The Acolyte in a scene in which Sol and Vern are deciding what to do about the assassin murdering their fellow Jedi. While Ki-Adi-Mundi isn’t yet on the Jedi High Council at this point in the timeline—again, this is 100 years before The Phantom Menace—he suggests they report the killings to the Council for their guidance. Master Vern strikes down that idea, of course, since informing the High Council (which includes Yoda!) would also mean the Jedi would have to report the crimes to the Republic Senate, setting off a scandal. Instead, Vern and Sol decide to handle the search for Mae internally. Ki-Adi-Mundi isn’t one of the Jedi who joins Master Sol’s mission to Khofar, although the fact that he’s now involved in the Mae case suggests we’ll see him again at some point in the series.
The nerdiest of you might be wondering how Ki-Adi-Mundi could even be alive a century before The Phantom Menace and already a master. Just how old is he? The short answer is that there really isn’t a canon lifespan for Ki-Adi-Mundi’s species at the moment. While the old Expanded Universe established that the Jedi Master was in his 60s during The Phantom Menace, and that Cereans have somewhat similar lifespans to humans, none of that stuff is canon anymore, meaning Star Wars may have simply changed the rules in order to bring Ki-Adi-Mundi to the High Republic era. In Disney canon, Cereans may now live for hundreds of years, just like Yoda’s species.
This is rich coming from the guy who just explained all of the above, but this is ultimately a space fantasy story we’re talking about. I’d suggest not thinking too hard about what’s ultimately meant to be a fun cameo. Plus, it’s just nice to see Ki-Adi-Mundi again, especially since the last time we saw him in live action, he was being executed by his own clone troopers during the Order 66 sequence in Revenge of the Sith.
By the way, Ki-Adi-Mundi isn’t the only Prequel Trilogy Jedi fans are freaking out about after watching the latest episode of The Acolyte…
Plo Koon?! No, Ithia Paan
Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars fans likely jumped out of their seats when they spotted the Kel Dor Jedi hanging out in the background of one of the scenes in The Acolyte episode four. Most will have immediately assumed it was Jedi Master Plo Koon, another member of the High Council in the movies who also fought in the Clone Wars and died during Order 66.
Even if we did run into the whole “what is the average lifespan of a Kel Dor” conundrum again, one can never dismiss a Plo Koon cameo when he’s Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni’s favorite Jedi character. Remember when Filoni and Jon Favreau hid Luke Skywalker’s return in The Mandalorian from the other actors by saying it was Plo Koon showing up to save the day? Filoni loves referencing the Kel Dor hero, even when it doesn’t make any sense.
But no, the Kel Dor who pops up in The Acolyte is not Plo Koon. As confirmed by the official Star Wars handle on Twitter, it’s actually a new Jedi character named Ithia Paan. Still, this is an obvious reference to Plo Koon, who, like the Force itself, will be with us, always.
Star Wars: The Acolyte is streaming now on Disney+.
Written by
John Saavedra is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Den of Geek. He lives in New York City with his two cats.