In proving that she is apparently a one-note pony when it comes to storytelling, following her creation of the The Acolyte, showrunner Leslye Headland has voiced her interest in doing another Star Wars adaptation based on a female villain with a ‘grey’ conception of the Force, this time in the form of a live-action Knights of the Old Republic project focused on the villain Kreia – otherwise known as Darth Traya.
The former assistant to Harvey Weinstein professed her desire to take on the fan-favorite video game series (or more specifically its second entry, given her exact mention of Kreia) during a recent interview given to Brazillian entertainment news outlet Omelete.
Asked if she had any Star Wars ‘dream projects’ she’d like to work on after The Acolyte, Headland asserted (as machine translated via DeepL), “I’ve always wanted to explore a live-action version of the Knights of the Old Republic game and the character of Kreia. I think it would be a very interesting story to bring to life.”
Pressed further if said adaptation would possibly feature an appearance by the first KOTOR game’s iconic Darth Revan, Headland conclusively declared, “Well, start writing some emails! Start crowdfunding.”
A main character in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Kreia is a former Jedi whose obsessive desire to understand the Force drives her to take more and more ‘ethically questionable’ approaches to studying the power and teaching it to her students.
Kicked out of the Jedi Order out of a fear that her unorthodox teachings had directly inspired her former Padawan, the soon-to-be-Darth Revan, to launch a ‘Force civil war’, Kreia soon comes to believe that not only are the Jedi unworthy of their power, but that they should be eliminated wholesale for the good of the galaxy.
Giving herself over to the Dark Side and taking on the name of Darth Treya, the aging Force master embarks on a shadow plot to manipulate the galactic order into imploding upon itself – starting with a Jedi Exile known as Meetra Surik (aka the canon player character in KOTOR II).
Sound familiar? It should, as noted above, this ‘the Force is ambiguous, the Jedi are the actual villains’ set-up is near-exactly the same one that serves as the basis of The Acolyte.
All in all, while The Acolyte is already proving that Headland fundamentally misunderstands the core of Star Wars, her being given a KOTOR project would additionally confirm that she is, at the end of a day, a one-trick narrative pony.
