Warning: This article contains a small spoiler about a minor character appearance in Episode 4 of Star Wars: The Acolyte.
One of the more appealing aspects of Star Wars: The Acolyte has been its standalone nature, taking place so far before the main parts of the franchise that it feels pretty separate. But the further the series has gone on, the closer to the films it’s felt–and we peaked on that front when an actual movie character made a cameo appearance this week. It wasn’t a major or particularly consequential part, but it’s certainly a surprising one.
The Jedi in question is the cone-headed Ki-Adi-Mundi, who was a member of the Jedi Council in the prequel films–a role he apparently held for a century or more, since he was present for a Council meeting on The Acolyte this week. It’s a very small cameo, and he’s only got a couple lines, but it’s definitely him because he’s listed by name in the end credits for the episode.
Ki-Adi-Mundi is an interesting choice for a random cameo. He’s recognizable but is much more of a character in novels and comics than he ever was on-screen, so he realistically belongs more to the world of Star Wars books. Which would probably make him more palatable as a cameo than tossing in Yoda for three minutes would.
But he’s still a kinda random choice for a cameo for several reasons. Ki-Adi-Mundi is a Cerean, and there’s no indication they should live this long–in the old, defunct Expanded Universe, Cereans had a similar lifespan to humans, but Ki-Adi-Mundi clearly is already old enough to be on the Jedi Council and is going to live for another 100+ years. But here’s a fun fact: Cereans have such big heads because they have two brains stacked on top of each other up there.
Making this random appearance slightly more awkward is that Ki-Adi-Mundi was only a Jedi Knight, not a master, when he was on the Jedi Council during The Phantom Menace, but that’s old lore that’s easy to ignore. And since he’s listed as Master Ki-Adi-Mundi in the credits, we’re not gonna sweat it.
But if you were hoping for somebody more substantial to show up–sorry, this appears to be it.
