Karl Puschmann is Culture and entertainment writer for the New Zealand Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.
Debuting on Disney+ today, The Acolyte aims to revive the Star Wars universe with a fresh storyline set 100 years before the Skywalker saga. The NZ Herald’s Karl Puschmann talks to showrunner Leslye Headland about the new series, her compelling vision and why she’s avoiding online discourse.
A lot is riding on the success of The Acolyte, Disney’s new Star Wars series, and its creator Leslye Headland is feeling all of the feels. “It’s exhilarating. It’s terrifying. It’s vulnerable. It’s a dream come true. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me…” She waits a beat, then laughs. “No, I’m just joking. It’s wonderful.”
Beaming in from Los Angeles, Headland appears relaxed. She’s confident the series she’s created, wrote and directed will bring balance back to the Star Wars fandom, which has generally been left disappointed by recent offerings from that galaxy far, far away.
The Acolyte can almost be considered a soft reboot of the franchise. Rather than attempting to shoehorn itself into the Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader timeline which all the current movies and TV shows are set in, the series instead rewinds the clock 100 years.
This gives The Acolyte a completely blank slate to tell its story without the need to worry about continuity or disturbing other canon events in other media, while still giving it the basic Star Wars foundations to build on.
The show is an action-mystery series that sees Jedi being tracked down and killed by a shadowy assassin and the emergence of her hidden Sith puppetmaster. The story follows Jedi master Sol (played by Squid Game’s Lee Jung-Jae) and his former student Mae (The Hunger Games’ Amandla Stenberg) as they attempt to track down the killer and her master.
Squid Game’s Lee Jung-Jae plays Jedi master Sol in The Acolyte. Photo / Lucasfilm Ltd.
When Headland pitched the series, she memorably presented it as “Frozen meets Kill Bill”. It was a combo so appealing LucasFilm’s head honcho Kathleen Kennedy greenlit the series there and then.
“It was surreal,” Headland says, the disbelief still present in her voice. “I know that’s a pat answer, but it really was. I had been working on the pitch for so long and Kathleen’s a legend, so I was very nervous. But to achieve that in the room, to connect with her in that particular way, to leave the meeting knowing I was going to get to work in this IP, in this world that George Lucas created… the only word I can think of is surreal.”
To call her a Star Wars fan is an understatement. During an interview promoting The Acolyte at the giant fan convention Star Wars Celebration, she was asked about her history with the franchise and broke down in tears, saying the movies “saved her life”. Frustratingly, the host didn’t ask how, or why, or anything further about her emotional revelation before moving on.
“My family moved when I was in high school. I went from one place where I had a lot of friends to a place where I didn’t have a lot of friends and felt very alienated,” she replies when asked to elaborate on her Star Wars Celebration answer. “This coincided with the special editions coming out. Being able to see them in the theatre the way George Lucas intended them to be… I was blown away. I loved them as a child, but at that point, to experience that, to love that, it became my whole personality. Star Wars really just became my whole personality for a while there.”
More so than any of the recent shows, The Acolyte explores the classic Star Wars themes and ideas of the moral struggle between right and wrong and the consequences of embracing dark over light.
The Acolyte explores classic the Star Wars theme of moral struggle. Photo / Lucasfilm Ltd
“The thing I learned is that conflict is inside all of us. It’s what George Lucas talks about; the balance,” she says. “It’s not the banishing of the bad or the banishing of emotions. That’s not what the Jedi are about. They have those things inside them. They’ve just found a way to balance that.”
She grins and admits there are “absolutely” examples from her own life when she’s failed that morality choice or given into the dark side. Despite all insistence for her to provide a concrete example, she laughs and simply says, “I can’t disclose that at this time.”
What she can talk about, however, is the moment The Acolyte went from a successful pitch to something she was actively working on.
“I had pitched a season arc, but for every writer, that first page is still daunting, even if it’s a story you’re excited to tell. I think every writer has that same feeling when they’re looking at the notepad and going, ‘God, I hope I get an idea. I hope something comes to me.’”
“My advice to any aspiring writer is: finish it.” she says, emphasising the full stop. “Finish the draft. If you go back and start rewriting while you’re writing, well, that way lies madness.”
Keeping track of “the conversation” can also lead a person directly to madness. As much as Star Wars is beloved, there’s a segment of the fandom online that has fallen to the dark side and become toxic. Female stars, writers and Kennedy have all been subjected to a torrent of online abuse. Headland and The Acolyte are no exception.
Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen, centre) with other Jedi padawans in The Acolyte.
“As a Star Wars fan and somebody who consumed a lot of the ‘capital-D’ discourse before I got the job, I know what’s out there. I don’t need to go searching for it,” she says. “Since getting the job, I’ve had to mind-wipe it away.”
Not that she’d have time to jump online even if she wanted to. Right now she’s caught up in the show’s launch, doing as much as she can to ensure it goes smoothly, finds a fanbase and gives Star Wars the win it currently needs. The pressure’s on. Not only does Disney want The Acolyte to be a hit, they want it to be the springboard for its own galactic universe of spinoff shows and movies.
Headland has done all she can. She’s created a compelling vision, written an intriguing story and directed a great cast in physical locations with real sets. Now, it’s up to the force.
“You know, the goal was to create this show, to execute it and work with incredible people,” she smiles, “And then send it out into the world and let it breathe. We’ve done that. Now we have to let it live.”
The Lowdown
Who: Leslye Headland.
What: Creator of the new series Star Wars: The Acolyte
When: Streaming from today on Disney+. New episodes weekly.
