Leslye Headland Is Just Getting Started

With the first season of The Acolyte done and dusted, you’d think Leslye Headland would be free to spill some more secrets about the Star Wars series. But the writer and director is still playing a few cards close to the chest. That’s partially because she’s still thinking about the future of the show — and still awaiting that coveted second season order. There’s still a high chance it could follow in the footsteps of The Mandalorian and Andor, especially with an eager group of fans campaigning for another season of the show.

“I’m not online, so my wife told me about it,” Headland tells Inverse of the “#RenewTheAcolyte movement. “It made me feel like people are invested and love the show, which is great because I’m invested and I love the show.”

Headland’s wife, Rebecca Henderson, also has a personal stake in the series: she plays Jedi master Vernestra Rwoh, the first character from the High Republic saga to make her way into live action. Throughout The Acolyte, Vernestra was mostly on the sidelines, but the season finale sees her taking on a major role, and sharing the screen with Star Wars royalty.

“Plagueis was always in the show.”

Episode 8 (appropriately titled “The Acolyte”) features a long-awaited cameo from Master Yoda himself. It’s a bittersweet moment, as it clearly broadcasts just how messy things are about to get for the Jedi. With a string of Jedi deaths to answer for and a Senate investigation looming, a potential Season 2 would feature even more political intrigue and existential dread... and that’s to say nothing of a certain Sith lurking in the shadows.

From the bleeding of a kyber crystal (the stone that powers a lightsaber) to a cameo from the infamous Darth Plagueis — and even a quasi-romantic ending for Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and her new Sith master (Manny Jacinto) — The Acolyte season finale was definitely a win for the dark side lovers. In an interview with Inverse, Headland breaks down the biggest moments of Episode 8, and sets the stage for Season 2.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Starting from the very end of the episode and working our way back, I hear you had to fight hard to get Yoda in the stinger.

Yes. I mean, I wouldn’t say “fight hard” in a totally super adversary way. It’s more like, that’s a big character. So it was not fighting in an aggressive way, but definitely a spirited conversation.

Was it about just the integrity of the brand?

Yeah, there was the logistics of it all for sure. But then there were some, I’d say almost spiritual conversations about using such an iconic character. I felt strongly about it because I felt that to me, Vernestra was in a situation that was so heightened and really needed to be taken care of internally. She was already feeling this pressure of, “If you don’t have a suspect, then we have a real problem.” Rayencourt suggests the internal review of the Jedi, obviously at the small council, but Chancellor Drellik doesn’t doesn't confirm or deny that request. It felt like she had to report to her superior and let him know what’s up, and probably tell him about what happened between her and her padawan.

“It’s not like it’s the first time Yoda has hidden something from the Senate and the Republic.”

That was a fun bit of foreshadowing for me, knowing what we know about Yoda and about Dooku. It’s so funny that Vernestra could be going to him for advice, and he’s like, “Hmm, never experienced this, have I.” But you will!

I was also just interested in Phantom Menace when he immediately is like, “There’s always a master and apprentice.” It’s not like he was alive during the New Sith Wars, so I guess there’s a chance that it was a piece of information that was passed down through the generations. But because I had the opportunity to work in Star Wars, I just think a more interesting version of this is that he has some sort of understanding of what’s going on — and it’s not like it’s the first time Yoda has hidden something from the Senate and the Republic. In The Clone Wars Season 6 it’s revealed that he covered up the creation of the clone army and asked everybody to not say who was behind it. So it just felt to me that there was something fun to explore there if we were allowed to talk about, and to do more seasons. There was a large conversation about including him. But I just thought… I mean, it’s my show.

Now that all the episodes are out there, I feel like we can talk about the things that were in Legends that you wanted to bring in, but maybe couldn’t. Did you have any other ideas that you wanted to include in the season but they just didn't fit?

One thing that I did want to explore, but it was too much of a deep hole, was the time period when Vernestra became a Wayseeker. I just thought that was an interesting piece of information to bridge where she was and where she is now, and her experience with the Nihil. I was hoping to get a little bit more backstory for her, but there were already so many characters that I wanted to dive into, and those first four episodes are very much about establishing the era.

Plagueis was always in the show, though. Plagueis was the plan in terms of revealing him and establishing him in live-action. My dream was always to introduce him with his hands first. Because Muuns, their forefingers and their middle finger are longer than the rest of their fingers. So always my dream was to show that first, and sort of give a little bump for those that knew.

You’ve spoken about balancing Plagueis’ cameo with that moment of Osha’s triumph in the end. Could you tease how he could fit into the story when it continues?

He’s definitely a signifier of things to come if we end up moving forward. Osha and the Stranger are aligned. Literally the last shot of the show is the two of them holding the same lightsaber. It’s the last shot of Fight Club — these are two people that are looking out under the horizon and believing that their power is intense, and strong, and shared, and passionate. The Sith line is, “Peace is a lie, there is only passion.” And the last line is “The Force will set me free,” which is why the Stranger says what he says in [Episode 6]. So they’ve really sort of come together and they click in this beautiful way, and in this way that I would love to keep going with them.

“How will they survive the structure of how the Sith work?”

But the tease is: because there’s Plagueis and because we know that Palpatine is eventually Plagueis’ apprentice, we know that these two people are not going to fall into that set lineage. This is a triumph for Osha; it’s a triumph for both of them. But the added complication that master and apprentice — or in this case apprentice and acolyte — there’s always an imbalance. One to hold the power, one to crave it. And seeing these two characters completely aligned with each other in this hugely satisfying way, the tease is: How will they survive the structure of how the Sith work?

Is there a chance that they could decide not to be Sith? I mean, that’s probably a spoiler, but…

Yeah, I can’t talk to you about that.

When I spoke to Hanelle [M. Culpepper, the director of the finale], she said you toyed with the idea of potentially going for a kiss.

We did. We definitely toyed with it. There was a very long conversation about it actually on set, and there were a lot of pros and cons, but ultimately it was the actors that came up with that option of holding the lightsaber together. They kind of organically came up with it together because we ultimately didn’t land on kiss. So the question was, “What’s a kiss, but not a kiss?” And I think them being tied together by this lightsaber that has honestly followed Osha all the way through her life — she holds it as a child when Sol hands it to her, it’s the lightsaber that killed her mother, and now that it’s bled, it’s the representation of her ascension into dark sided-ness. The second they did it, I was like, “This is right. This is absolutely right.”

I loved finally seeing David Harewood in the finale. He has such a fun role. Could you talk about the decision to include him as Season 2 set up?

You had to drop someone in that immediately had high status. That scene would not work if you had someone that couldn’t go toe-to-toe with Vernestra. I was very familiar with his work, and he was a name that was brought up very early on, and he’s so skilled and so lovely that it felt like Rayencourt was somebody we would love to continue exploring. He just felt like somebody that we not only admire, but that just dropped in there and you had to believe everything that he was saying, and he did that quite well.

Do you know for sure if Season 2 is happening just yet?

I do not.

Is there anything that you’re dying to explore if you do get a Season 2?

I am really excited about the prospect of the Mae-Vernestra relationship. I really love the idea that Vernestra now has on her hands a Force-sensitive, powerful woman that is, at this point, docile enough that Vernestra would be able to educate and form an allegiance with. So that was very exciting to me to set up.

Obviously, Osha and the Stranger is probably the juiciest relationship that I would love to dive into. There’s so much about them that I would love to explore more, and not just the hand-holding. But the power dynamic between the two of them I think is really interesting. And whether or not they can make that work or it’s something that causes a lot of conflict. That’d be really cool. I would love to see Osha’s development as a warrior. Osha fights in the last scene, but in the rest of the season she doesn’t. So I would love to see her with a lightsaber. I would love to explore that.

I already talked about Plagueis, and then there’s a bunch of High Republic, Legends stuff that I’d be interested in folding into the show. I’ve already talked to [Lucasfilm executive] Pablo [Hidaldo] about some characters from High Republic. We’re still working that out.

How do you feel about the hashtag “Renew the Acolyte?”

I’m not online, so my wife told me about it, and it just warmed my heart, made me feel so good. It made me feel like people are invested and love the show, which is great because I love the show. That was a lovely thing to hear, but also, I’m so proud of the show. I think that it’s, one, a huge accomplishment for me, but I also still feel invested in the story to this day. Obviously, I love the characters and I also love all the boundaries we pushed, and that includes the cameos. But the boundaries that we pushed with Manny’s character, the Stranger, both in Episode 5 and Episode 6, I loved the Rashomon storytelling. I loved the creation of Aniseya and who she was. She was based on this character, Lauren from Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. This girl that accidentally creates a religion through her own evolution to survive. I’d love to explore that a little bit more. I think those are the bullet points of stuff that I think would be so fun and interesting to get into.

The Acolyte is now streaming on Disney+.