The Big Picture

Get ready for The Acolyte: mystery-thriller Star Wars series set in the High Republic era, delving into dark secrets and Jedi powers.
Showrunner Leslye Headland teases Andor and Mandalorian elements, Clone War references, and potential for a multi-season narrative.
The Acolyte features a unique take on Jedi power dynamics, with white-robed Jedi facing sinister forces and a potential for a Season 2.

There is more on the horizon for Star Wars fans with the upcoming series, The Acolyte. The series is set many years before the events of The Phantom Menace, during the High Republic era, which has yet to be explored onscreen. The new Star Wars series is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated. The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Carrie-Anne Moss, Rebecca Henderson, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lee Jung-Jae, Manny Jacinto, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Dafne Keen.

Yesterday, Collider’s own Steve Weintraub had the chance to talk with The Acolyte’s showrunner Leslye Headland and discuss its similarities with Andor and The Mandalorian, Clone War references, depicting Jedi at “the height of their power”, and whether or not the series has the potential to expand into a Season 2. In addition to Star Wars, Headland also chatted about the future of her Netflix series Russian Doll. Check out what she had to say below.

Russian Doll Co-Creator on the Future of the Natasha Lyonne Series on Netflix

COLLIDER: So I’ll start with the most important thing. Will Russian Doll Season 3 ever happen, or is that series over?

LESLYE HEADLAND: I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know if it’s because Natasha’s doing Poker Face now. I don’t know if it’s gonna become a schedule thing, but I haven’t heard anything from Netflix about it.

Do you think there’s a chance of more Russian Doll or do you think it’s mostly [done]?

HEADLAND: No, I think there is. 100%. Yeah, I definitely think there is. I just haven’t heard anything about it.

How Does ‘The Acolyte’ Trailer Set Up the Upcoming Star Wars Series?

Jumping into Star Wars. The trailer does a great tease of what the series is about, because it’s like a teaser trailer essentially. How much did you work with Disney on marketing, and how much is it sort of them saying to you “Here’s the trailer.”

HEADLAND: Weirdly, I was very wary, of course, of being like, “Oh my God, I’m gonna make some trailer.” I was nervous. 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.

As the series gets closer to coming out, get ready for the full trailer, that’s a whole different story.

HEADLAND: Yeah. That’s a whole different story, I’m sure. We haven’t even gotten into it. Yeah.

Is the teaser trailer footage from just the first few episodes, or is it from the entire series?

HEADLAND: It’s from a lot of episodes. It’s not from a whole series, but I would say it’s from 4 to 5 episodes.

‘The Acolyte’ Will Have Elements From ‘Andor’ and ‘The Mandalorian’, Including Clone War References
Image via Disney+

Is the series more Andor or more Mandalorian?

HEADLAND: I think it’s in between. I think it’s very much in between, meaning it’s a serialized storyline, it’s not episodic. There’s an overarching story that’s told over the course of eight episodes. It is a mystery thriller, meaning each episode you have to watch in order to get more information, and start to get invested. I found with Andor, it really built into something that was exciting, and had this incredible payoff at the end. We were definitely trying to do something similar narratively.

But I would say in terms of the more Mandalorian aspects of it, there are a lot of alien references, a lot of Clone War references, a lot of original trilogy references. Basically, all of the stuff that I love about Star Wars, and I think are recognizable but no Post-Empire or current Empire iconography. So no Stormtroopers. We don’t have anything to rely on that anchors you in the Skywalker Saga, or post-Skywalker Saga.

In the trailer, there’s a line, “Someone is killing Jedi. It doesn’t make sense.” What can you tease about that line?

HEADLAND: 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?

The Jedi Will Look A Little Different From What Star Wars Fans Are Used to in ‘The Acolyte’
Image via Disney+

Jodie Turner Smith, in the teaser trailer has a line, “This is about power, and who is allowed to use it.” What would you like to say about that?

HEADLAND: I’ve always seen Star Wars as…well, I wouldn’t say all of Star Wars. I think Star Wars is really complicated, but I think one of the themes of Star Wars is usually underdog versus institutional threat, right? That’s one aspect of it. And to me, in that particular era, the Jedi are not a threat at all. They’re a benevolent, balanced, I think well-intentioned, beautiful institution that has amassed an enormous amount of power. So the question becomes, is it right for an institution to have that much power? I think that sometimes people get a little caught up in the morality of “Oh, the good people can use power, and the bad people can’t,” and it’s more about who is allowed to amass power, and who is allowed to use it for their own ends.

What if you are Force sensitive and you don’t wanna become a Jedi? What happens then? Are you not allowed to utilize your power? George would say that it fades without training, but is there no training going on at all, in the whole galaxy? No one has figured out a way to do that beyond the Jedi. Obviously we know that the Sith are still doing the Rule of Two at this point, so there’s a training aspect going on in that sense. You have Force Witches, similar to Nightsisters, who are training each other, we know that. There are no Nightsisters in the show, but we just know that there are different factions, and even in the EU and in the High Republic, there’s talk of Force cults that have decided to retreat from society, and now I’m getting too nerdy. But anyway, point being, it is an institution allowed to amass that amount of power, even if their intentions are, are “good”

There is a great shot in the trailer of all these Jedi lighting up their lightsabers getting ready to fight. Is that a one-off in the series? What can you tease about that fight? Because I think fans are going to go crazy when they see that.

HEADLAND: 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.

Also right after that shot, is the shot of the red lightsaber flying through trees…I believe the series is eight episodes. Are the episodes 30 minutes, or more like an hour?

HEADLAND: About 30 minutes, yeah. I would say some of them are a little bit longer, like the finale, I think it’s 40 minutes. But there are also some that I think are barely 30 minutes. On average, I would say somewhere between like 30-35 [minutes].

Do you consider this like a four-hour movie?

HEADLAND: You know, I don’t. I would consider Russian Doll that. I think that it was this continuous [thing], like a really good album. It was meant to be sat and watched and listened to and all that kind of stuff. But 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.

Leslye Hadland Already Has Ideas for a Potential Season 2 of ‘The Acolyte’
Image via Disney+

If the show comes out, fans love it, it gets great ratings, have you guys been working at all on the possibility of a Season 2? Do you view this as a one season show? What can you say to fans who might want more?

HEADLAND: 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. I want you to feel like you’ve had a particular type of catharsis, and an emotional experience in watching those eight episodes because I like rewarding the audience with that. I still think that means you can pepper in things that are like, “I wanna see where that’s gonna go” and, “Oh, I didn’t realize that person was related to that person in this way, and I’d like to see more.” But there isn’t something where you feel like you’re on the edge of your seat to have that catharsis, and then you have to wait two years. These things take forever to make, so I would hate to make a season that didn’t feel complete, even if it was still open for more story.

One of the things about streaming shows, I think, the problem is there is such a huge break between seasons for the fans. So I am curious, have you figured out what Season 2 would be? Do you have any scripts? If Disney said we want to make another season, how quick could you actually make it?

HEADLAND: 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. I’m very interested in that. I’m interested in seeing, like you said, the ratings and seeing what are the things that people…I don’t wanna say it’s in reaction to fan reaction, but you do get feedback at the end of the season, which is kind of nice, to just be like, “ok, those people hated that.” It doesn’t mean we don’t do it, it just means we’re armed with the information that that was an unpopular thing. So we can do it anyway, but knowing that stuff, I think, is really good. I think they would love to start it immediately. They’re very happy with the series. But I need a break. I also have a baby. I don’t know where the baby came from. I know she’s giving me a cold [laughs].

We know that Vern is in The Acolyte, played by Rebecca Henderson. Will other characters from The High Republic books make an appearance?

HEADLAND: 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. A character that started out as a prodigy, someone powerfully connected to the Force, almost in love with the Force, but also sassy enough to make her lightsaber into a whip. Someone [with] that experimentation, that energy, and then to see who she is in our show, and see what happens over the course of becoming a more and more powerful Jedi, and going from mission after mission, to council meetings, and protocol, and “how do we keep this institution going, how do we check it, how do we negotiate the level of power that we have.” She’s massively respected, and considered to be one of the most powerful

Jedi at this particular time period. I hope the High Republic fans are excited by the white robes, because we really were intent on using them. Not only because that was a nod to the books, but also because I think it really thematically explains a lot. They’re not getting into a bunch of skirmishes, you know? They’re wearing all white, because not much is happening. Connecting those with the brown robes that you usually see Jedi in as the mission robe, the robes that would get dirty, those are fun things to pull. You’re gonna see some stuff from the EU, you’re gonna see some aliens from Clone Wars in there, references to the special editions. There’s a lot of fun stuff in there that’s not necessarily connected to The Mandalorian or The Skywalker Saga.

I gotta stop because they gave me the wrap. I really can’t wait to see the series.

HEADLAND: I really hope that you enjoyed the trailer. I know it was similar to what you saw at Celebration, I really hope that you found it still enticing.

I think teaser trailers like that are great. You’re teasing people about what’s to come, and then the next trailer is giving you a lot more.

HEADLAND: You know, one thing I would say about the trailer, or the teaser is that, whatever you think it is, it’s something else. There’s a lot there to take in, but I think that there’s so much that isn’t there, that while it does tease you, there’s so much more that I can’t wait for you guys to see. So even though you’re pulling from a bunch of episodes,there’s so much more that I can’t wait for you to see.

The Acolyte will be available to stream on June 4. Keep an eye on Collider for Star Wars coverage and interviews.

The Acolyte
The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.Release Date June 4, 2024 Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 1 Studio Disney+ Franchise Star Wars