25 Years After The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Is Finally Explaining Why The Jedi Thought Anakin Was "Too Old"

Summary The Acolyte may expand on the reasons why the Jedi Council was concerned about Anakin's age and attachments, as Amandla Stenberg's Mae will likely serve as a key parallel 100 years before The Phantom Menace.

Flashbacks suggest Mae was recruited as an older child, potentially explaining the Jedi's hesitation toward students like Anakin being too old for training.

Mae's story may shed light on why the Jedi avoided older recruits, setting up exciting Jedi Order revelations in The Acolyte's upcoming premiere.

The Acolyte will likely explain the Jedi Council's caution to train Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. Having been discovered living as a slave on Tatooine with his mother, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn sensed the boy's great power in the Force as the potential prophesied Chosen One. Regardless, the Jedi Council was hesitant to have the boy trained as he was much older than the typical children they recruited into their ranks.

Now, news promos for the upcoming Acolyte series are teasing that the new series will expand on the reasons why the Jedi were so concerned, 25 years after The Phantom Menace's release. As seen in a new flashback sequence, Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) appears to be recruiting Mae (Amandla Stenberg) as a child to become his new Jedi apprentice.

As a result, it seems as though The Acolyte will feature some key parallels to Anakin with this new High Republic Era series set 100 years before the beginning of the Skywalker saga.

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The Acolyte Teaser Hints Mae Was An Older Jedi Recruit

She Looks To Be About Anakin's Age

Canonically, children identified by the Jedi Order as Force-sensitive were taken to the Jedi Temple as infants or within the first few years of birth at the latest. As such, it's notable that this flashback seems to depict Mae meeting Master Sol around the same age as Anakin Skywalker when he was found by Qui-Gon. To that end, there's an implication that she too was initiated into the Jedi Order at a much older age than standard.

Likewise, young Mae is also featured being recruited while she's with her coven, the very same group of witches featured in more present-day sequences in The Acolyte's trailers. As such, it can be inferred that Mae is the top suspect behind a recent Jedi killing spree, having recently left the Jedi Order to rejoin the coven she left as a child. To that end, perhaps whatever happened to Mae that caused her to leave Sol and the Jedi Order became a cautionary tale for future Jedi recruitment.

Will Mae's Attachments Explain Why The Jedi Stopped Recruiting Older Students?

Perhaps Mae Is A Big Reason Why The Jedi Believed Anakin Was Too Old

While based only on what's been seen in the trailers and promos, it does look as though Mae's lingering attachments could be what motivated her to leave the Jedi Order. This would be fascinating considering Anakin's age and attachment to his mother were the primary obstacles preventing the Jedi Council from approving his training. At any rate, The Acolyte should prove to be a very exciting examination of the Jedi Order a century before The Phantom Menace, seeing as how this parallel is likely just one of many that will be featured when the full series releases on Disney+.

The Acolyte's two-episode premiere begins streaming June 4th on Disney+.