Out of the various new Star Wars projects that were announced last December, Leslye Headland's The Acolyte arguably remains the most mysterious. We do know that the Disney+ series will be set during the final days of the High Republic and explore “a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers,” but that's about all we have to go on.
During an in-depth interview with The AV Club, Headland was asked about the show, and while she was hesitant to share any new plot details, the Russian Doll creator did reveal that she wanted to bring in writers who weren't necessarily as "immersed in this fandom" as she was in order to gain a different perspective on the mythology.
“There were people like myself that were like later-in-life [Dave] Filoni acolytes,” said Headland. “I literally had one writer that was like, ‘I have never seen any of them. I’ve never seen any “Star Wars” media. And she’s texting me before we started the room, she’s like, ‘Luke and Leia are brother and sister, what the…?’ [Laughs.]”
Headland also commented on the laughable "keep politics out of Star Wars" stance we see all too often from a certain section of fandom online.
"I mean, it’s funny, because a lot of the feedback that I’ll get—and I use the term feedback very lightly—but when I do go on social media, the feedback is “Don’t make Star Wars political.” I’m like, “George Lucas made it political. Those are political films.” War is, by nature, political. That’s just what’s up. It’s truly what he was interested in talking about and looking at and digging into."
"So it’s kind of impossible to tell a story within his universe that doesn’t have to do with something that has to be that the characters see externally reflected in whatever’s happening in the galaxy at that particular time period of when it takes place. You know? That’s another thing that we all kind of inherited from him as well, and hope to kind of keep reflecting in the work, hopefully."
We'll hopefully learn a little more about The Acolyte soon, but for now be sure to let us know what you make of Headland's comments in the usual spot.