According to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, the backlash to The Acolyte‘s existence is not a result of Star Wars fans’ current exhaustion with the franchise’s production-level focus on identity politics, but rather the misogynistic attitudes of its primarily-male fan base.
Kennedy offered this defense of the Leslye Headland-helmed series’ green-lighting while speaking to The New York Times‘ Brook Barnes in promotion of its upcoming premiere.
Asked by Barnes if she had any thoughts on the widespread despair felt by fans that The Acolyte would be yet another ‘message first, entertainment second’ project from the House of Mouse, the Disney exec asserted, “My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That’s an easy decision for me.”
“Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying,” Kennedy then asserted, pushing back against the series’ pre-release critics. “I think [showrunner] Leslye [Headland] has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”
Weighing in on the topic herself, Headland separately opined to Barnes, “As a fan myself, I know how frustrating some Star Wars storytelling in the past has been. I’ve felt it myself.”
In a text message sent to the reporter following the conclusion of their interview, the showrunner added, “I stand by my empathy for Star Wars fans. But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”
That The Acolyte will feature some amount of unwarranted political commentary was previously confirmed by Headland herself.
Expounding on her approach to the series’ narrative during a 2021 interview with The AV Club‘s Danette Chavez, the showrunner asserted, “I mean, it’s funny, because a lot of the feedback that I’ll get—and I use the term feedback very lightly—but when I do go on social media, the feedback is ‘Don’t make Star Wars political.’ I’m like, ‘George Lucas made it political. Those are political films.'”
“War is, by nature, political,” she continued, disingenuously conflating the idea of ‘ham-fisted political soap boxing’ with ‘discussions of political themes’ in order to dodge critics’ actual arguments. “That’s just what’s up. It’s truly what he was interested in talking about and looking at and digging into. So it’s kind of impossible to tell a story within his universe that doesn’t have to do with something that has to be that the characters see externally reflected in whatever’s happening in the galaxy at that particular time period of when it takes place. You know? That’s another thing that we all kind of inherited from him as well, and hope to kind of keep reflecting in the work, hopefully.”
At current, The Acolyte is set to slice, stab, and Force-Fu its way onto Disney Plus on June 4th.