The Acolyte answered many of the questions we had heading into the finale, only to leave us with even more following the shocking live-action debut of Darth Plagueis and the revelation that The Stranger is a former Jedi Padawan.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly (via SFFGazette.com), showrunner Leslye Headland was asked if she's heard about plans for season 2 and bluntly responded, "Nothing."
While that might sound like a pretty negative update, she was quick to point out, "You have to take a break. Especially after something like this. I don't even know how many years my brain has been going, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, Acolyte, Acolyte, Acolyte — just constantly solving problems, constantly thinking about it. It is very weird to now be in a place where I don't need to do that."
Despite nothing being greenlit, Headland already has plenty of ideas about how a second season would play out and strongly hinted that exploring Vernestra Rwoh's history with The Stranger would be front and centre.
"I think if we're allowed to continue telling this story, you'll see more of Vern's history with the Stranger and how that's affecting the decisions she's making now," the showrunner teased. "[Vernestra's backstory] was something I kept trying to slip in, but there was so much."
Of course, Headland will also need to make room for both Plagueis and Yoda, two characters teased in the finale who will almost certainly have more to do if and when The Acolyte returns. While addressing that, she confirmed that the Sith Lord is indeed Qimir's Master, and not a rival Sith stalking a rival from afar as some fans theorised.
This means Qimir has either taken it upon himself to find an Acolyte or has only used Mae and Osha to help Plagueis crack the code of prolonging and creating life.
"We wanted to show Qimir’s master. We weren't going to wait a second season for that," Headland said of the finale. "We wanted to wrap up the twin storyline. We were not going to leave everybody hanging. They've sat through all of this, and we want to reward people for watching."
"The dangling of other stuff, especially the legacy stuff like what's Manny's name, Yoda, Plagueis, and what the background is with Vernestra and her relationship with the Senate and how that's going to unfold with this sort of internal review of the Jedi — where does that lead? So it was a lot of: How is this going to fit in to what we later see?"
"That was the step I wanted to save for the tease, as well as Osha and the Stranger's relationship," Headland added. "I felt like that was a really good thing to tease as well. Mostly, I need a full season for that."
The entirety of The Acolyte's first season is now streaming on Disney+. Are you hoping for more episodes?