The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland has explained the importance of having one writer on her staff who had never seen Star Wars.
The official premise of the new Star Wars universe show reads:
'The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic era in a world of "shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers" approximately 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.'
It stars Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Carrie-Ann Moss, Dafne Keen, Amanda Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Margarita Levieva, Joonas Suotamo, Amy Tsang and Abigail Thorn.
The series is created by Leslye Headland, best known for her work on Russian Doll and Sleeping With Other People.
There is often a lot of baggage that comes with developing a Star Wars series due to the partisan Star Wars fans and the amount of lore that has already been created.
That's why Headland wanted someone with an outside perspective on the universe.
" 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," she told The Hollywood Reporter.
"And 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.
"And it was really funny because she finally watched the Original Trilogy over that Christmas. She watched the Prequels, too, but she kept texting me (about the Original Trilogy) and was like, 'Luke and Vader are?'
"All those things that we’ve known forever were blowing her mind. She was like, 'Luke and Leia are brother and sister!? What the fuck!?' She was writing all these things to me, and I just thought it was so funny. So she educated herself in order to be in the room, but it was really fun to have somebody like her to help collaborate."
The Acolyte trailer
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