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Squid Game’s Lee Jung-Jae To Make Hollywood Debut In Disney+ Star War Series The Acolyte

The Acolyte is set a century before the events of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.

Squid Game star Lee Jung-Jae is headed to a galaxy far, far away for his Hollywood debut.

According to Deadline, Lee has been cast the male lead in Disney+’s Star Wars series The Acolyte.

First announced on Disney’s Investor Day in 2020, The Acolyte is set a century before the events of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. The series — which hails from Russian Doll creator Lesley Headland — is set in the final days of the High Republic era, when the Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were believed to have been eradicated from the galaxy. In Star Wars lore, “acolyte” can refer to folks with Force abilities who learn from a more experienced Sith Lord.

The Acolyte, which also stars Amandla Stenberg (The Darkest Minds) and Jodie Turner-Smith (Anne Boleyn), is expected to begin production in London later this year. Lee's character is shrouded in secrecy.

Headland has said she’ll be drawing material from Star Wars: The High Republic, a multi-media project introduced in 2020 and spans comic books, audio dramas, web series, and novels.

Lee’s slate is packed in the coming months. Besides Season 2 of Squid Game, he’s starring in and co-producing Ray, a TV series prequel to the 2020 Korean action-thriller Deliver Us from Evil. He will be reprising the title character, a Korean-Japanese psychotic killer.

In the original movie, Hwang Jung-Min played In-Nam, a black ops agent-turned-assassin who travels to Bangkok to rescue his estranged daughter from human traffickers. There he is pursued by Ray, whose gangster brother had been killed by In-Nam.

Lee made his directorial debut this year with Hunt, a twisty spy thriller about two rival South Korean intelligence chiefs (Lee and Jung Woo-Sung) assigned to catch a North Korean mole.

Lee will be a presenter at next Monday’s Emmys where Squid Game made history becoming the first non-English language show to be nominated for Best Drama Series. The Netflix hit also scored nods for Lee (Outstanding Lead Actor), Park Hae-Soo (Outstanding Supporting Actor), Oh Yeong-Su (Outstanding Supporting Actor), and Jung Ho-Yeon (Outstanding Supporting Actress).

Hunt (NC16) is now in cinemas; Deliver Us from Evil (NC16) is available on iQiYi. 

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos

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Hollywood Lee Jung-Jae Squid Game Star Wars

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