The first two episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney+, and Lucasfilm's latest live-action Star Wars series certainly starts with a bang. You might even say it slays!
Major spoilers follow.
The premiere begins with mysterious masked warrior Mae (Amandla Stenberg) walking into a cantina and challenging Jedi Master Indara (Carrie -Anne Moss) to a duel. We've seen quite a bit of their ensuing battle in the various trailers and TV spots, but the outcome is sure to come as a shock to many viewers.
Unable to get the better of Indara in a fair fight, Mae resorts to throwing one of her blades at the bartender, and when her Jedi opponent uses the Force to stop the weapon before it strikes, the Dark-side assassin takes advantage of the distraction by flinging another knife into Indara's chest - killing her almost instantly.
During an interview with EW, showrunner Leslye Headland explained the decision to kill-off the character played by arguably the biggest name in the show during the very first scene.
“The truth is that I just wanted to create a cold open. I think it's the TV writer in me, to create a cold open that you were just shocked by.”
"Not to compare myself at all to Vince Gilligan," she continues, "but the cold open to Breaking Bad is one of the best cold opens ever. So whenever I sit down to write anything, I'm like, ‘Well, I won't be able to top that, but in my show, what's the version of that?’ And it felt like the best I could come up with was killing Carrie-Anne Moss. It was icing Trinity and just having everyone go, ‘I'm sorry. What's happening in this?’”
The mystery surrounding Indara's murderer is revealed shortly after, as we learn that Stenberg is indeed playing a dual role as twin sisters, Mae and Osha.
"I think of them as always in flux with each other," the Bodies Bodies Bodies star tells the site. "So a quality that one of them might really be exhibiting, the other one is lacking. And then when that one starts to take on more of that quality, it weans in the other one. I think of them as always kind of an interplay with each other.”
“I think of them as yin and yang,” she says of the pair. "That was really important to me. And we have some of that imagery in the show. Yin and yang has also been important imagery in the Star Wars universe through The Last Jedi and The Clone Wars. And I love that kind of part of the allure of Star Wars.”
What did you make of the first two episodes of The Acolyte? Were you surprised that Carrie-Anne Moss's character was taken out so quickly? Drop us a comment down below.
In The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.
The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGraté and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.
Headland also directed the premiere episodes (Eps. 101 & 102). Directors Kogonada (Eps. 103 & 107), Alex Garcia Lopez (Eps. 104 & 105) and Hanelle Culpepper (Eps. 106 & 108) round out the directing duties on the series.
Award-winning composer Michael Abels, known for his work on Get Out and Us, scored The Acolyte.