In further confirming that the franchise’s current shepherds view it as nothing more than a vehicle for their own fanfictions, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland has revealed that rather than tell a clearly defined morality tale between the Jedi and the Sith, the upcoming Star Wars television series will ask fans whether “the bad guys are actually the underdog”.
Speaking with StarWars.com on March 19th following the world premiere of The Acolyte‘s first trailer, Headland explained that the High Republic Era-set series will focus on the question of how the Jedi Order, at the height of their prestige, power, and influence, could crumble so drastically as to be in the scattered state they are throughout the Skywalker Saga.
“If Star Wars is about the underdog versus the institution, [in The Acolyte] the Jedi are the institution,” the showrunner explained. “I was so interested in a storyline where the Jedi were at the height of their power — and I don’t mean The Phantom Menace, because at that point, there’s a Sith Lord in the Senate that they’re not picking up on.”
“[In the show, I wanted the Sith to be] a thing I’ve heard of, but it’s not a thing that you would ever consider you’d be interacting with,” she added.
To this end, Headland then asserted that the fundamental question at the core of the series’ story was “What went wrong?And if the bad guys are actually the underdog, it just seemed like a cool reversal.”
Notably, Headland’s comments are not the first time a member of The Acolyte‘s production has hinted that the series will stand as yet another instance of Disney ‘subverting’ the franchise’s overall identity.
During a February 2024 interview with C Magazine, series star Amandla Stenberg said of its premise, “In the context of the Star Wars universe, it’s a time of great peace, theoretically.”
“It’s also a time of an institution, and it’s a time in which conceptions around the Force are very strict,” the actor added. “And I think what we’re trying to explore within our show is when an institution has a singular conception of how power can be used…we try to provide a lot of different perspectives and answers to that question. The idea is to kind of honor the ethos of Star Wars and ideas around the Force and also challenge them, hopefully harmoniously.”
Yet, despite Disney’s continued insistence that the morality of Star Wars should be less ‘black-and-white’ and more ‘grey’ – a turn more and more productions have made in recent years as Hollywood continues to try and emulate the breakout success of Game of Thrones – it should be mentioned that George Lucas himself specifically created the franchise to tell a very clear-cut ‘good and evil’ story.
Reflecting on the franchise’s development during a 2017 interview with media production company Goalcast, the filmmaker asserted, “The secret, ultimately, which is the bottom line in Star Wars and the other movies is there are two kinds of people in the world, compassionate people and selfish people.”
“Selfish people live on the dark side,” he explained. “The compassionate people live on the light side. If you go to the side of the light, you will be happy because compassion, helping other people, not thinking about yourself, thinking about others, that gives you a joy that you can’t get any other way. Being selfish, following your pleasures, always entertaining yourself with pleasure and buying things and doing stuff, you’re always going to be unhappy. You’ll never get to the point.
“You’ll get this little instant shot of pleasure, but it goes away and then you’re stuck where you were before,” Lucas concluded. “The more you do it, the worse it gets. You finally get everything you want and you’re miserable because there’s nothing at the end of that road, whereas if you are compassionate and you get to the end of the road, you’ve helped so many people.”
And lest anyone, in light of the 40-year gap between when he made A New Hope and gave his above comment, run to accuse Lucas’ statement of revisionism, his intent for his galaxy far, far away was so clear that even his actors were able to pick-up on it.
Touching upon his experience working with Sir Alec Guiness in the original film for the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy, Star Wars icon Mark Hamill recalled, “He was the person who sort of brought it some legitimacy. And I asked him why he wanted to do it. And he loved the idea of playing a mentor or a wizard in a morality play where good and evil are so clearly defined.”
As of writing, The Acolyte is currently set to lightsaber-slash its way onto Disney Plus on June 4th, 2024.