While some celebrated the end of The Acolyte due to its controversial approach to certain ideas in the Star Wars Galaxy, many fans were disappointed to see the Disney+ series scrapped without getting a proper conclusion.
In the finale, The Stranger, a.k.a. Qimir, enlisted Osha as his apprentice, though Darth Plagueis—the Sith Lord who we know eventually served as Emperor Palpatine's Master—could be seen watching them from a distance.
We recently learned that the plan had been to reveal that Qimir was not a Sith, but the first Knight of Ren. As you'll recall, the Star Wars sequel trilogy established that Ben Solo/Kylo Ren was a member of that Sith-adjacent group, but failed to ever really explore what that meant or who they were (one of many frustrating plot holes or unanswered questions from the movies).
TV Insider (via SFFGazette.com) recently caught up with actor Manny Jacinto and asked for his take on The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland's remarks about scrapped plans to link Qimir to the wider Star Wars Galaxy.
"I did run into an article about, and I think Leslye cleared things up a little bit," he started. "That a possible path was that Qimir was one of the first Knights of Ren, so that was a possibility to explore."
Jacinto added, "I think there would’ve been maybe more of a Master-Padawan relationship with [Qimir and Vernestra Rwoh in Season 2], but who knows? I don’t know if we’ll ever see it."
The revelation has led to a renewed interest in The Acolyte, the only Star Wars TV series that Disney made a point of publicly cancelling. For Jacinto, the door remains open for a return if Lucasfilm comes calling.
"I am always ready, and I would love to run it back if they’d have me," the actor confirmed. "That was a role of a lifetime, and I’m incredibly proud of what we did in The Acolyte and with Oshamir, with that whole relationship."
"I feel like with a lot of the franchises that we currently have, it’s missing the romance. It’s missing a lot of love and relationships. We have the big fight scenes and the origin stories of these heroes and whatnot, but they don’t really have a relationship with other people. It’s such a weird thing."
"And that’s why I loved the Qimir and Osha relationship, because we were taking it back to having a relationship in this big world. I think we just need more of that," Jacinto noted. "I think that’s what made the characters and the story more compelling as opposed to just having big fight sequences, which I loved."
The Acolyte Season 2 doesn't look likely, and with Lucasfilm moving on from The High Republic Era in both live-action and publishing, the fate of this show's characters will likely remain a mystery to us.
The Acolyte is now streaming on Disney+.