Star Wars: Did The Acolyte Just Return to Major Sequel Trilogy Location?

The Acolyte’s latest episode may have returned to Ahch-To from the Star Wars sequels.

Spoilers follow for Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 6! After the surprise events of last week’s episode of The Acolyte fans were greeted to a slower start to the series with Osha having been taken by The Stranger/Qimir to a new planet. In a move that feels very much not like Star Wars, their location isn’t revealed at all, with a title card calling it an “Unknown Planet.” It’s surprising that this would be done considering Star Wars has never shied away from introducing new planets for the first time via a similar method, so why not do it in this case? Is it because it’s a planet we already know?

Star Wars fans were quick to immediately notice the similarities in the atmosphere and terrain looked VERY similar to Ahch-To, the planet where Luke Skywalker has exiled himself in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. From a larger storytelling perspective it would make since for The Stranger/Qimir to have made his way there since the planet has a history with the Jedi Order’s origins. As fans are well aware though, there’s a sinister side to Ahch-To as well, like the cave where Rey was briefly tempted by the Dark Side, which could very well have been a lure for Qimir too. 

There’s at least some evidence in favor of this “Unknown Planet” NOT being Ahch-To however. First of all, the wildlife. Only a family of tiny little creatures are seen on the planet and even though they bare a slight resemblance to the Thala-sirens seen on Ahch-To in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we can’t rightly say they’re related. The other notable inhabitants of Ahch-To in the sequel trilogy are of course the Lanai (aka the Caretakers) and the Porgs, neither of which are seen here.

If the “Unknown Planet” ISN’T Ahch-To, the other likely candidate is Bal’demnic. Another rocky/ocean planet, Bal’demnic is notable for being a major location in the Darth Plagueis novel by James Luceno. In that book, and in Star Wars canon, the planet of Bal’demnic became very valuable for Plagueis because of its rich cortosis mines. The latest episode of The Acolyte not only brought up cortosis once again, but even let The Stranger/Qimir explain it to Osha and the benefits that it offered when fighting against jedi. 

If the “Unknown Planet” was in fact Bal’demnic it would make sense for that fact alone; however it brings up a major question, why not just say it’s Bal’demnic? Why the secrecy? Only two episodes remain of Star Wars: The Acolyte season one, so the reveal of what this “Unknown Planet” really is will likely be revealed in some way soon, but right now there are two major answers that seem likely. 

Set during The High Republic, Star Wars: The Acolyte delivers an investigation into a mysterious string of crimes, which pits a Jedi master against his former apprentice in a race to uncover the truth. The more that the pair learn about the situation, the darker their journey becomes, as they confront things that darker than either of them could have imagined.

The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Star Wars: The Acolyte premieres new episode on Disney+ every Tuesday at 9 PM ET.