Star Wars: The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland is gearing up for the series’ release on Disney+ next month, and says she was inspired LucasArts’ classic video game spinoff series, Knights of the Old Republic.
Headland opened up about how The Acolyte pulled from the rest of the Star Wars universe to help tell its story during a recent interview with Den of Geek. Seeing as the series takes places long before even Episode I – The Phantom Menace, she and the rest of her team had room to play with Star Wars canon. One character who was on the table was dark side pioneer Darth Bane, though it sounds like he won’t show up in Season 1.
“While we don’t get into that particular lore, there were some things in Legends that I wanted to drag out because I felt they were really interesting, not only to the storyline but to myself as a fan,” Headland said. “I thought, ‘Well, I’d love to do that.’ ”
Legends is a term for Star Wars stories and characters that aren’t widely considered to be part of the official universe canon. Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 fall under this umbrella, but it turns out Headland is a fan of what those games had to offer.
“Darth Traya really stuck out to me as an inspiration,” she said.
Darth Traya, also known as Kreia, appears in Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords and is one of the game’s primary villains. Headland didn’t elaborate further, however, on how exactly the character’s influence, or any other parts of Knights of the Old Republic, will play a part in The Acolyte.
The Disney+ series takes place in the High Republic era and follows emerging dark side powers after a string of Jedi murders. It takes place around 100 years before The Phantom Menace and stars Amandla Stenberg as Mae, Dafne Keen as Jecki Lon, Carrie-Anne Moss as Indara, and Lee Jung-jae as Sol. Headland also explained why she decided to set The Acolyte so long before the events most fans are familiar with.
“There were two reasons I wanted to set it in that particular time period and that far away from the prequels. One, I didn’t want to mess with any canon,” Headland said. “The other thing that I loved about this period was the lack of legacy characters. I was too nervous to take them on, but also, I feel like we’ve seen a lot of that. [The High Republic] felt like a sandbox that I could easily jump into.”
Headland has gone on record to proclaim her love for other spinoff Star Wars content in the past. In an interview with IGN in March, she spoke on how The Clone Wars, particularly the episode The Wrong Jedi, helped influence The Acolyte.
The Acolyte comes to Disney+ on June 4. For more, you can check out its star-studded and lightsaber-filled May the 4th trailer. Then be sure to check out the show’s first full clip, which IGN shared exclusively earlier today.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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