‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Leslye Headland Defends Series’ Portrayal Of The Jedi, Says It “May Feel Like I’m Criticizing The Jedi As They Exist In George Lucas’ Ouevre” But “That’s Not The Case”
According to The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland, the series’ less-than-shining portrayal of the Jedi Order is not aiming to criticize George Lucas’ original take on the collective group of Light Side adherents, but rather to get audiences to look at their existence from “a different point of view”.
Headland offered this defense of the Star Wars series’ ‘morally gray’ narrative while speaking to Collider‘s Maggie Lovitt following the premiere of its sixth episode, Teach/Corrupt.
In light of the episode’s heavy focus on Qimir’s anti-Jedi philosophies – “The Jedi teach there’s only one way to access the Force and if you don’t do it their way, it fades,” the Sith at one point tells Osha. “But there is another way. Below the surface of consciousness are powerful emotions. Anger. Fear. Loss. Desire.” – Lovitt pressed the showrunner on “how much fun has it been to get to pick apart these ideas that have been baked into the franchise for so long and then flip the narrative a little bit and make people look at things from a very different point of view?”
“I hope it’s making people look at it from a different point of view,” Headland declared in turn. “I can understand that fans — especially people who don’t know the High Republic — may feel like I’m criticizing the Jedi as they exist in George Lucas’ oeuvre, meaning the prequels and Episodes 5 through 6, but that’s not the case. We’re so much further back from that. We’re in that era that Obi-Wan is talking about in A New Hope. We’re in that period where the proliferation of power is so huge and far-reaching. Actually, in the next episode, you’re gonna see how far-flung particular missions with Jedi are and the lack of oversight.”
Expanding on her take on the Jedi, Headland continued “Comparing these Jedi to the Jedi in the prequels is a little difficult because it’s 100-ish years [before those films]. It’s a century.”
“So you see Vernestra’s like, ‘We cannot let this happen,'” she told Lovitt. “She gets more and more concerned about that at the end of the season, and rightfully so because she, as a very powerful Jedi Master, can sort of see what’s on the horizon, whereas, when we meet the Jedi in the prequels, they’re completely enmeshed at that point.”
Returning to Lovitt’s original question, Headland then asserted, “One of the interesting ways to unpack the Jedi is, when they are at their height as they are here, what are the things they’re doing differently?”
“A Jedi doesn’t pull their weapon unless prepared to kill — that’s just a High Republic concept,” she explained. “They don’t have battle droids, they don’t have other people with lightsabers. There isn’t any reason to pull it. Comparing that to anybody in the prequels, it’s not the same. They’re just not the same Jedi.”
Drawing her thoughts on the topic a close, Headland ultimately affirmed, “So, in my opinion, and in my experience, and what I was interested in digging into is, it seems like it’s a time where you can break down the Jedi as a concept, whereas I wouldn’t want to touch what has been established of them a century later.”
The next episode of The Acolyte is currently scheduled to hit Disney Plus on July 9th.
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