The Acolyte: Leslye Headland Opens Up About the Series Following Trailer Debut

SWNN Probe · Mar 19, 2024

Following the trailer release for The Acolyte earlier today, two new interviews with showrunner Leslye Headland have been published.

First, the mastermind behind the show spoke to StarWars.com about her take on the series and getting the chance to explore the bad guys as the underdog, opposite to what George Lucas did in the original trilogy:

“If Star Wars is about the underdog versus the institution, [in The Acolyte] the Jedi are the institution. I was so interested in a storyline where the Jedi were at the height of their power — and I don't mean The Phantom Menace, because at that point, there's a Sith Lord in the Senate that they're not picking up on. Like it's a thing I've heard of, but it's not a thing that you would ever consider you'd be interacting with.”
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Mae (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm's THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

The Star Wars galaxy is something she's been familiar with ever since the theatrical release of the Special Editions back in the 90s, and she's always seen it as a place to escape, and where the playground is big enough for everyone:

“I think it just meant so much to me because it was a place to live, a place to escape to. Not just the media, but…George [Lucas] had given you enough signposts that it's almost like Narnia. You could just go [into the Star Wars galaxy] and live there. And then you just have to come out of the wardrobe at some point and go to class.”
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As seen in the trailer, the three main characters (played by Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, and Carrie-Anne Moss) have a lot of one-on-one, highly choreographed fights. This is something where the actors surprised Headland, as she explained:

“I was really impressed. Carrie-Anne Moss, Amandla Stenberg, and Lee Jung-jae — he really blew me away with how much of his own action he did! The way that they challenged themselves, they understood that it was important, emotionally, for the audience to see their faces.”
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Scene from Lucasfilm's THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

The Acolyte will have ties and references to a lot of future Star Wars eras, but will also acknowledge the past, i.e. the Extended Universe, which Headland grew up on. She commented on some of her geekier moments when putting together the show, including canonizing a species that's yet to be seen:

“There were certain things that I really wanted to do. You'll see a half Theelin, half human Jedi, Jecki, played by Dafne Keen, which was always a dream of mine. There's also some EU lore that I decided to put in because I thought it was so cool and no one told me I couldn't. There are a couple of really big EU ideas that are utilized both early on in the series and later in the series.”
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The Acolyte will also be the first time we see High Republic fan-favorite Vernestra Rwoh in live-action, played by Rebecca Henderson. Headland said that her opening the door was her favorite moment in the trailer: “It's like ‘What's up? Listen, I haven't opened a door in 100 years,’”; she also added:

“I'm just so excited for people to see her in this show because she is so different. She’s very rarely in the mission robes adventuring and dreaming. I think, as the show goes on, you'll understand why. She has seen so much and she is so in-tune and in love with the Force. Here she's much more of a high-ranking official. The other Jedi revere her. I'm just really excited for people to see her in this show and to see the performance.”
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(Center): Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) in Lucasfilm's THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Collider also had the chance to speak to Headland about the new trailer. We've included some highlights below, but head over there to read the full interview. As the showrunner, Headland had the chance to provide input to the Lucasfilm marketing team about what moments should be in the trailer and was then shocked by what she got back, she commented:

'I had given them a couple of ideas, I was like, 'Here are some things that I think are interesting. Here are some moments that I think were important narratively, to get in there,' and then they sent me something back that was perfect. I was absolutely shocked.

I guess I shouldn't say that, because they're my boss, but I was so in love with what they sent me, and I felt so understood by that. They understood the show, and they understood what to pick out in order to properly set up the series, and also give you just enough that you weren't giving too much away.'
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She also confirmed that the footage is from four or five of the eight episodes, which will be in the 30-40-minute range. However, she doesn't consider this to be a four-hour movie:

'I actually think that it is a more weekly experience, and I think it's good that it's a weekly experience because I think when you're dealing with really heavy issues, especially in Star Wars, I think having a break for a week is actually a good idea. Because when Luke says in The Last Jedi, 'it's time for the Jedi to end,' it might be nice to have a week after that, you know what I mean? Like, what does that mean? Let's have a capital-D discourse about it. So I don't see it as a four-hour movie, no.'
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Jedi Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) in Lucasfilm's THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

When asked about Lee Jung-jae's Master Sol's line “Someone is killing Jedi. It doesn't make sense,' she said:

'Well, I think it's really difficult to defeat a Jedi. It doesn't make any sense. Who can do that? Who would be powerful enough to kill a Jedi, especially at the height of their power. And I would consider this to be the height of their power, because in The Phantom Menace, they're not sensing the Sith presence to the point where they don't know what Palpatine’s presence is doing, or even what his intentions are. So I would say, as you move further back, I think you get the Jedi at the height of their power. So, it doesn't make sense because who would be able to do that?'
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She also commented on that moment at the end where every Jedi we know ignites their lightsaber. Is that just a one-off or a recurrent theme for the show? She said:

'I think what I could say about that, without spoiling anything, is that when I was thinking about the Jedi in this particular era, I thought that they wouldn't pull out their lightsabers very often, in this era. There aren't battle droids to fight, there isn’t a Darksaber. It exists at this point, but it's definitely not around. So why would they pull their sabers? They would only pull their sabers if they felt like they were really being threatened. And so what I can say is that they are very threatened at that moment, when they pull them out.'
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Amandla Stenberg in Lucasfilm's THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

When asked about a potential season 2, Headland confirmed that she initially pitched the series as a multi-season story, but the first season will be satisfying on its own:

'I would say that when I pitched it, I definitely pitched it as a multi-season show. There are a lot of things at the end of this season that I think are narrative threads that are not tied up, for sure. However, I am the type of writer that is not interested in an emotional cliffhanger.'
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She also added that, should they move forward with it, the wait might not be as long as we think:

'We could make it pretty quickly. We definitely have a timeline. I have a lot of ideas, and again, a lot of it was stuff that I told Kathleen early on, in terms of where I would like the season to go, and the conflicts that I see happening, specifically in the second season. But I have been working nonstop on this for a very long time, so I am definitely taking a much needed break before we get the writer room going. And I'd like to see how the show performs.'
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When asked about other High Republic characters appearing in the first season, she was very direct:

'I'm gonna be straight with you. They do not. Part of that is because I wanted to save some people for Season 2. I really focused on Vern. Vern was a character that really jumped out at me immediately as someone that I wanted to see as an arc for where we were with the Jedi when we come into this story.'
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Headland had one final mic-drop while talking to StarWars.com about the show:

“This is very incendiary. But whatever you think The Acolyte is, it’s not that. It's a drop in the bucket, baby. Just hang in there and check it out.”
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The first two episodes of The Acolyte, which Leslye Headland directed, will be available to stream on Disney Plus Tuesday, June 5, at 6pm PT/9pm ET.

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The Acolyte: Leslye Headland Opens Up About the Series Following Trailer Debut

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The Acolyte: Leslye Headland Opens Up About the Series Following Trailer Debut

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