Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was so impressed by the writing of The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland that she encouraged her to make the upcoming Star Wars series on Disney+ more personal.
In a piece about Headland in The New York Times, the Lucasfilm boss made one important note after reading initial drafts of The Acolyte in 2019. “You’ve written a great Star Wars show,” Kennedy said to Headland. “Now go write a Leslye Headland show.”
Headland recalls Kennedy reading her sibling rivalry play “Cult of Love” and teased its themes as inspiration for a key plot point in The Acolyte.
“I have a very strained relationship with my youngest sister, and I feel like one of the reasons it is strained is that we both see each other as the bad guy,” Headland said. “And if I was going to tell a story about bad guys, it seemed to me that the place to start should be a familial relationship where one person is adamantly convinced of her correctness and the other person is also adamantly convinced of her correctness.”
Known for her work as the co-creator of the Netflix series Russian Doll, Headland was a lifelong Star Wars fan who contacted Lucasfilm directly about producing a series in the universe during the early days of Disney+. “I essentially cold-called Lucasfilm and, after a lot of conversations, found myself pitching a show — utterly elated, my ultimate career goal, the culmination of my fandom,” Headland said. “At the same time, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. There is so much pressure. It’s extreme. I had never done anything this big before.”
What is The Acolyte about?
The official synopsis for The Acolyte reads: “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 first two episodes of The Acolyte are scheduled to be released on Disney+ on June 4th.
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