The Star Wars fandom can be very protective about the IP, that’s why they want to make sure that anyone working on it is a fan, and though The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland is a self-professed fan of Star Wars, she still says it’s important that there was someone in the writer’s room that didn’t hold the franchise to that much esteem.
“I just thought it would be good to have the perspective of a person that had literally never seen Star Wars until she was in the room,” Headland tells The Hollywood Reporter, “She said to me, ‘Why do you want me in this room? I’ve never seen Star Wars. I have no idea. I think there’s a dog in it, but I don’t know anything.’ And I was like, ‘First of all, you’re an incredible writer, but that’s why I want you here. I want you to be questioning narrative. I don’t want myself, who’s a lifelong fan, to just be relying on particular references in order to create emotional beats. I want those emotional beats to be earned and checked by someone that isn’t super familiar with it.’
If anything, some fans have been coming to realize that one doesn’t really need to be a fan of Star Wars to be able to do something great with it. Tony Gilroy has never said that he was a fan of the series, yet he’s delivered some great material with Andor and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Let’s also not forget the OG Star Wars icon who couldn’t care less about the franchise—Harrison Ford.
For now, everyone is waiting in anticipation for what The Acolyte has to deliver. With shows like Ahsoka being criticized for relying too much on fanservice, the comments from The Acolyte showrunner Headland makes me confident that we have an upcoming series that’s more focused on delivering a narrative as compared to a checklist for fans to tick boxes off of.
The Acolyte premieres on Disney+ on June 4.
