How the Cast of “Star Wars: The Acolyte” Trained

“Star Wars: The Acolyte” is the latest installment to the Star Wars universe on Disney+, and as a huge Star Wars fan, I was hooked. I wasn’t alone, either. The first episode of season one amassed over 4.8 million views in one day, then launched into hyperspace with over 11.1 million views after five days, according to Disney.

This series, which ventures into new, uncharted waters, taking place a hundred years before the first prequel movie, “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” included sharp action scenes, intense fight sequences, and thrilling stunts similar to the styles found in the “Matrix” and “John Wick” movies. It was a physically demanding season, and the cast of “Star Wars: The Acolyte” — which includes Amandla Stenberg playing both Mae and Osha, Lee Jung Jae as Jedi Master Sol, Carrie-Anne Moss as Jedi Master Indara, and Manny Jacinto as the Stranger — certainly worked hard to prepare.

Ahead of the final episode of the season, which premiered on July 16, PS spoke to the team behind the action, including stunt coordinator Mark Ginther, second unit director and action designer Chris Cowan, and assistant fight coordinator Lu Junchang to get behind-the-scenes insight into how they prepared the stars for the compelling action found in the series. Spoiler alert: we talk a lot about weaponry and lightsabers.

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Mark Ginther is the stunt coordinator for Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Chris Cowan is the second unit director and action designer for Star Wars: The Acolyte

Lu Junchang is the assistant fight coordinator for Star Wars: The Acolyte.

How the Cast Learned to Use a Lightsaber

What Star Wars fan can say they’ve never played around with a lightsaber? But in case you’re wondering, actually fighting with one — in a fight scene, of course — requires some serious training.

“One of the biggest issues that I knew we would have [with the lightsabers] is the risks that these actors were going to be going through, because these things were heavy. So we knew early on that we wanted to build that up,” says Ginther, who has 38 years of experience with stunt coordinator work.

Put simply, the cast didn’t start training with the lightsabers that were used during filming; that would be like expecting a total beginner to work with a heavily loaded barbell and telling them to start squatting or trying power cleans. “When you’re taking these weapons and banging against each other, they’re heavy,” Ginther tells PS. “You’ve got wrist action that needs to be taken carefully. Because once you blow a wrist it’s kind of hard to do stuff.”

Instead, the props department created saber hilts — just weighted handles — for the actors to practice with before graduating to actual lightsabers. “We had the actors work with them, and then we extended [it] with a carbon fiber tube to be the same length [as a lightsaber], but lighter. As they progressed, then they filled the inside of the fiberglass tube, so it was basically the same weight of the sabers,” Ginter tells PS. “The sabers that they built us were amazing. They were super light.”

Curious for more info about the lightsabers? Same — and Ginther delivered. For one, they’re super durable. “We smacked them and we never broke one. All the hitting and stuff we did, it was amazing,” he tells PS, adding, “They could change the lights as we were working . . . It was really great technology.”

But technique is what really helps the lightsabers look realistic on the screen, so the actors spent a long time learning to use them naturally. “A lot of the action you’re seeing is in the wrist. It’s the wrist that makes that saber come to life,” Ginther says. He says he bought foam Kali sticks — Kali, also referred to as eskrima or arnis, refers to a weapons-based martial art form with multiple styles and derivatives from the Philippines — and gave them to the cast to practice their movements at home. “They could go home and they could practice with a Kali stick, which was super light. It’s soft to get that wrist movement,” he says.

How the Cast Trained For Fight Scenes

Training wasn’t all lightsabers, though. To help the actors prepare for the fight scenes, they were first asked to undergo an “actor assessment.” “That’s when you have them come in, we just have them perform the basic series of punches and kicks. Maybe some head reactions act — like, ‘Act like you just got punched in the stomach,’ — maybe some light falls. Seeing if they can touch their toes, or seeing if they can go into this specific lunge from there,” says Cowan, the second unit director and action designer (who also worked on that Darth Vader hallway scene from “Star Wars Rogue One” – yep, you know the one). “We’ll start breaking down a series of just basic moves, depending on what they would be doing, whether it be hand-to-hand or weapons training, making sure the footwork and the foundation is strong.”

After building up the cast’s foundational skills for about four weeks, they began training in the actual choreography for the shows, Cowan tells PS.

The action scenes in the show pulled inspiration from a variety of martial arts styles: “Wuxia, wushu, kenjutsu, karate, filipino kali, [and] Western boxing, just to name a few,” Cowan says. “We definitely didn’t discriminate when it came to the martial arts style. If a certain move worked for the flow, we would put that within the flow of the choreography. We still want the universe to feel otherworldly. We wanted to blend and pay homage to not only the original trilogy, but the prequel trilogy.”

Junchang, the assistant fight coordinator, tells PS that he was very proud of the cast members, who worked incredibly hard and trained extensively to make the fight choreography look good. The team’s overall goal was to help each member of the cast understand how to use action to tell the story, beyond only fighting. One of the guiding questions when developing this series was, “How can we use fight choreography to tell the story?”

In the series, the diversity of the action ranged from hand-to-hand and empty-hand combat, and showcasing weapons ranging from traditional (or non-traditional) lightsabers, or knives wielded by Mae’s character, played by Stenberg.

One of the memorable drills he put the actors through involved improving lines while working on striking patterns. Placing tape in front of a mirror, Junchang had the cast members practice moving through different patterns, ranging from slicing in a horizontal line, or cutting in straight line, and working on diagonal strikes. Eventually, the cast would progress to working on footwork with the strikes, while also emphasizing strong technique in their stances.

He also put the cast through wrist motion drills — remember, lightsaber technique is all in the wrist — focusing on what joint angle to twist the wrist. “You don’t want the lightsaber to lead your body,” Junchang says. “You control the lightsaber, not the lightsaber leading your body. The goal is to show control.”

Ultimately, the “Star Wars: The Acolyte” cast had to do what all of us have to do, no matter what step of our journey we’re on: build a strong foundation of fundamentals. “You have to get the basics of all your skill sets. You can’t just jump in to go, I just want to be a martial artist, and all I want to do is twirl sabers,” Ginther tells PS. “It’s great to have that talent, but you’ve got to have everything else before that too. So if you see these Jedis, they’re not just bringing around sabers. They’re doing everything else from the hits, the falls, the kicking, the fighting. You have to learn it all. Learn all the basics.”

Jade Esmeralda, MS, CSCS, is a Staff Writer, Health & Fitness. A life-long martial artist and dancer, Jade has a strong passion for strength & conditioning, sports science, and human performance. She graduated with a Master of Science degree in Exercise Science and Strength and Conditioning from George Washington University.