According to the latest whispers to echo out of the once-beloved galaxy far, far away, The Acolyte will see the fundamental Star Wars concept of the Force – as in, the non-tangible energy produced by every living being and wielded by the Jedi and the Sith throughout the entirety of the franchise – revealed as an inherently female being.
This supposed plan for The Acolyte to further subvert Star Wars fans’ expectations, as ostensibly cooked-up by showrunner Leslye Headland, was first teased to the public by noted Disney scooper and media personality WDW Pro.
[Disclosure: This article’s author holds a personal friendship and working relationship with WDW Pro.]
Relaying information provided to him by an alleged insider source via a video uploaded to his personal YouTube channel, the scooper detailed, “Kathleen Kennedy and Leslye Headland are going to do something in The Acolyte that is going to essentially end what remaining fans they have – and that is that they are literally going to change the Force itself into being literally female. A gendered, female Force.”
Notably, this development appears to provide context to the previous tease by Film Threat critic Alan Ng, as made during on a June 2nd livestream hosted by noted entertainment analyst Valiant Renegade and based on his own viewing of the series’ first four episodes, that “the force is legitimately female”.
Seemingly hinting that this tease had something to do with The Acolyte‘s supposedly franchise-burying third episode, Ng, speaking from behind a Disney-backed non-disclosure agreement, asserted, “I’ll just say this. [Episode three] fundamentally changes the future of Star Wars.”
“Now, in terms of ‘does it negate the Originals and the Prequels’, not necessarily,” he explained. “I think we’re just going to be more upset with what we were presented and the knowledge that this is the direction Disney Star Wars is gonna go from now on.”
Should this rumor come to fruition, it will mark the first time in Star Wars history that the Force was depicted with either an actual gender or a physical form (contrary to popular belief, midi-chlorians are not the Force incarnate, but rather a species-wide vessel through which the life force communicates with the universe).
Further, this rumor coming true would establish The Force as but the second meta-physical energy concept to be canonized as ‘feminine’ following it’s respective franchise’s purchasing by Disney.
As seen in Marvel Comics’ Thor Vol. 6 #20, in breaking free of the Asgardian’s control and unleashing its true, unmitigated power upon the universe, the Golden Avenger’s hammer, Mjolnir, reveals its true identity as a female lightning entity known as the God of Hammers.
In the words of one Dr. Doofenshmirtz of Phineas & Ferb fame, “If I had a nickel for every time Disney turned a main power source of a typically ‘boy’s property’ into a woman, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
At current, the first two episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney Plus.
In regards to the following two episodes, the third will premiere on June 11th and the fourth will follow on June 18th.
