‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Leslye Headland Says Preview Audiences Regularly Praised Series As “The Gayest Star Wars”
According to showrunner Leslye Headland, those who were privy to early previews of The Acolyte routinely walked away from the series believing that it was “the gayest” piece of Star Wars media ever conceived.
The former assistant to Harvey Weinstein weighed in on the topic while speaking to TheWrap’s Drew Taylor in promotion of the series’ then-upcoming premiere.
Asked by Taylor, “This is arguably the gayest Star Wars by a considerable margin, are you excited about that, embracing that? Are you excited about [how] this is going to be a talking point?”, the showrunner began her response by first pushing back “[it’s] not the gayest Star Wars” before questioning, “Is it going to be a talking point?”
In turn, series star Amandla Stenberg, herself being interviewed alongside Headland, explained to the showrunner that the subject would become a talking point “because nerds are gay!”
Pushing back against the actress’ excitement, Taylor responded with the clarification, “Well some nerds are very not gay and are very threatened by gay stuff,” to which Stenberg admitted, “Well, that’s true, but in my world, nerds are gay.”
Offering her actual response, Headland then asserted, “No, I don’t think so! Yet people have told me that it’s the gayest Star Wars.”
“And frankly,” she laughed to Taylor and Stenberg, “I’m into it.”
From there, Stenberg defended Headland’s denial by observing, “I think that Star Wars is so gay already. I mean have you seen the fits?”
“We do like, ‘look how gay this is’ and then end each other a reference photo,” recalled Stenberg.
Building upon the actor’s anecdote, Headland further laughed, “And are you telling me with a straight face that C-3P0 is straight? I think it’s canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian.”
Headland previously teased that The Acolyte would feature some amount of LGBT thmes during a May 2023 interview with Empire Magazine.
Speaking to her excitement regarding the series’ featuring of a female villain, the showrunner explained, “When I was a young queer girl, I was just hanging out with Ursula the sea witch [from The Little Mermaid]. As a queer girl growing up, if you don’t identify with the heroes, and the villains show up and they’re all queer-coded, you’re like — yes, that’s me!”
“As a queer filmmaker, you’re gonna see some camp,” she teased of the series’ production direction. “Inevitably! But I would say that tonally, our references are darker.”
For all three remaining Star Wars fans, The Acolyte is now subverting the idea of The Force exclusively on Disney Plus.
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