What does Star Wars look like without the Skywalkers? In recent years, there have been various projects that have ventured into hidden corners of the Star Wars saga. But none have gone as far as The Acolyte. The new Star Wars series takes place 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and shows us an era that we have only known from books and comics: the High Republic.
The High Republic has been rolled out in print since 2020. The stories tell of the adventures of the Jedi who ensure law and order in the galaxy far, far away. However, a dark power rises in the shadows and soon one Jedi master after another dies. The Acolyte unfolds as a mystery thriller full of twists and turns in the final breaths of the High Republic.
Series creator Leslye Headland is well versed in twist-filled stories. After all, she brought the complex time loop dramedy Matryoshka to Netflix. Now she is the first film and series creator to expand the live-action sector of the Star Wars universe to include the High Republic, which has so far only been seen in the guise of the animated series The Adventures of the Young Jedi on Disney+.
She talks about this with us in an interview.
Moviepilot: How did you get your own Star Wars series?
Lesley Headland: II made a series called Matryoshka for Netflix, which was very popular in the US and nominated for several Emmys. Then I thought that the time was right to tackle my dream project – and that was a Star Wars series. I simply called Lucasfilm unannounced and said: “Can we meet, I have an idea.” The meeting actually took place and I presented my idea: an original story set 100 years before the prequels.
Disney
The Acolyte
So it was 100 years from the beginning? I could never have been so sure about when my Star Wars series would take place if I had all the options.
I felt that with that number we could take more liberties without clashing with canon and lore, all the things associated with the Skywalker saga, for example. Others have already had enough fun in that sandbox. I love their Star Wars films and series, but I wanted to tell my own story with my own beginning, that would be accessible to non-fans. Fans should still be interested in The Acolyte, because they understand the bigger picture that my story fits into. That’s where the 100 years come in again: we’re far enough away to tell something new, but you have a dark premonition of where events will lead.
This brings us back to the prequels.
Exactly, everything leads back to George Lucas’ vision. But the time before the prequels interested me the most. So I pitched two things to Lucasfilm: the storyline and the 100-year timeline.
When you pitched the series, did the High Republic already exist as a book project or did it come about afterwards?
These were two developments that happened simultaneously. I pitched the timeline for The Acolyte and then found out that there was another project being prepared at Lucasfilm that was set in a similar time period: Project Luminous. That was the working title of Phase 1 of the High Republic. I guess Lucasfilm was open to me exploring that era in the series because it would expand on all the books in the publishing initiative. In the series, however, we are already at the end of the High Republic. The Acolyte thus forms the bridge between the High Republic and the prequels.
Did you sit down with the authors of the books to coordinate the story?
No, we didn’t work together directly. Of course, I read a few of the novels, especially the Vernestra Rwoh stories. It was only after I finished working on the series that I had conversations with the authors and we talked about how our stories could converge.
Was there ever a moment when you thought, “Damn, I wish I had that idea myself”?
[Lacht] That’s actually one of the reasons why I didn’t delve too deeply into the books. I didn’t watch Andor for that reason either. When we were filming, I was very nervous and intimidated. So I just concentrated on filming. Then I watched Andor and it was fantastic. I love the series, but it was a good decision to wait until after filming had finished watching it.
Disney
The Acolyte
I know you’re a huge Star Wars fan and probably know most of the Star Wars stories. What was the one particular thing you really wanted to tell in your own Star Wars series?
Two things: So I really wanted to bring something personal to the Star Wars universe, whether it was from my perspective as a creator or from the perspective of the characters that are embedded in the story, like a family dynamic. In this case, it’s two sisters, but there’s also a kind of father-daughter relationship between Sol and Osha. The basic question is: why are you telling a story at all? I think you have to allow for vulnerability or something that’s really close to your heart. And the other thing I really wanted to have in the show was lightsabers. Plain and simple: lightsabers.
I can totally understand that. I asked some of your cast if they could choose their lightsaber color and they said that you decided that. How did you go about it?
Oh, that’s a fascinating topic. There are all these theories on the internet, based on Star Wars Legends, about what each color of lightsaber means. When I spoke to Pablo Hidalgo from Lucasfilm, who is kind of a living Star Wars encyclopedia. I asked him if there was a hierarchy of lightsabers. I never felt like that was the case in the prequels, but I might have been wrong. He said that there were no specific meanings attached to the colors. So I made the decision from an aesthetic perspective. What colors of lightsabers would work best together in the scenes?
Ah, that’s clever! What did you take into account?
I just went by the lightsaber fights in the series. I knew exactly who was fighting who and I wanted those fights to look really good. In a fight with multiple lightsabers, there should be different colors – a blue, a green, a yellow. Vernestra’s lightsaber is purple, of course, but that’s because of the book. Here, too, we made a conscious decision: she’s the only character with a purple lightsaber, so it feels special.
Speaking of aesthetics, The Acolyte is the first live-action series set in the High Republic era. How did you come up with the look of that era?
One of the first things I thought about when I was visualizing the High Republic was actually the lightsabers. All those different colors, that’s something I definitely associate with that era. Another important thing was the Jedi robes. We went by the descriptions from the books, even though that’s not the look that mainstream audiences associate with the Jedi. Most people think of Jedi as brown robes with gold accents, rather than white. But when we’re in the Jedi Temple in the show, the Jedi wear these shiny robes. Everything is very clean. They never get dirty. There’s far too little fighting. It’s a peaceful age. It’s only when the Jedi go on a mission that they put on the brown robes.
So that you don’t see the dirt from the fight so much?
That’s one thing I really love about our show, and one that I hope the audience will enjoy, too: the Jedi, who aren’t really used to getting dirty, are suddenly forced to get dirty. As the show goes on, the robes get more and more worn down.
Disney
The Acolyte
Another visual detail I really like is the Jedi Temple, which stands out above the other skyscrapers on Coruscant. The Jedi are, literally and figuratively, at the height of their power.
Yes! I talked about that a lot in pre-production. I even wanted to go a step further. I would have loved to have a garden, a green area, from which the Jedi Temple would have risen and towered even higher over the city. But I was told that the temple would not have looked like that at that time. But I still think it’s a cool idea.
One last thing that has stuck with me since watching the episodes: There is a moment where Yord is shirtless and ironing his robe. Is this a reference to the infamous Kylo Ren scene in The Last Jedi?
[Lacht] No, I’m afraid it’s not a direct reference, but we’ve talked about that scene a lot, especially about how high or low his pants ride. I felt that Yord should definitely have had them a bit lower. Adam Driver’s pants were way too high. As someone who was very taken with Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi, I wanted to return the favor by showing some shirtless male characters. I really appreciated Leia’s metal bikini when I was little. If there are lesbian girls who fall in love with Princess Leia, then maybe there are gay guys who do the same with my characters. And straight guys can get into it too.
More about The Acolyte:
The Acolyte has been running since June 5, 2024 on Disney+.