La scnéariste-réalisatrice-productrice Leslye Headland a échangé avec The Hollywood Reporter au sujet de la série Star Wars : The Acolyte, on y apprend entre autres choses que le Volume, parfois décrié, n'a pas été utilisé lors du tournage de cette série composée de huit épisodes :
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“One thing to know about the show is that we’ve been talking about it as a mystery-thriller. It is a serialized story, so each episode gives you more information about the story,” Headland tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“We were obviously influenced by samurai films and wuxia films, but also films like Rashomon, where you see one story and then you see it done a different way. So, what separates [Star Wars: The Acolyte] from some of the other Star Wars series is that it’s told in that particular way.”
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“I’m calling Lucasfilm. That’s where I want to work. That’s what I want to do.” So I pitched them. My elevator pitch was Frozen meets Kill Bill, which I said at [Star Wars] Celebration, and I went through what I believed would be a rough season one outline and then an overall series bible, essentially.
And Kathleen [Kennedy] bought it in the room and said, “I love it. I want to start working on it.” And we did. We did a lot of development on the scripts. We had a really great writers’ room. It took a while to get prep going because these are such huge projects, and we did a lot of our stuff practically in London. We didn’t use the Volume at all, so it was a lot of prepping for the show.
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And then the shoot went really smoothly, actually. It was long, and there was, as you can see from the trailer, a lot of martial arts. So we had an incredible stunt team that did some incredible wire work, and the talent did a lot of their own action. A lot of them had either done it before, like Carrie-Anne Moss, Lee Jung-jae and Dafne Keen. And then Amandla [Stenberg] just threw herself into training and did incredible work in a short amount of time. It got to the point where we started calling her Bruce Lee because she was too fast. (Laughs.) We were like, “You have to slow down because we can’t tell that it’s your face. You look like your stunt double because you’re going so quickly. We have to actually catch the move.”
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That’s right. But, for example, you will see a little bit of Vernestra Rwoh from the High Republic novels. She ends up being live-action for the first time, so that’s definitely a cameo for that audience, I would say. You see a lot of cameos of alien species that I don’t think I’ve seen in post-Disney live-action, meaning a Zygerrian Jedi and a half-Theelin, half-human Jedi. So there are species that you will see, but they aren’t necessarily like, “Oh, it’s that guy from that movie. Oh, it’s that character from Return of the Jedi: Special Edition.” It’s more like references to Star Wars that I think will excite fans, but they aren’t specifically named characters that exist there.
There’s also a lot of stuff from the EU that I got to utilize. Nobody stopped me, so I did it. (Laughs.) So if you’re a fan, there will be a species that you might recognize. There are also certain narrative elements. Basically, there are enough Easter eggs if you’re a fan of the Original Trilogy, the Prequels or The Clone Wars. And then there’s some EU sprinkled in. So you could definitely watch this series without knowing anything about Star Wars, but if you are a Star Wars fan, you will notice all of the things that we’ve put in there.
"She is a very dedicated Padawan," Keen tells EW of her character.
She’s half-human, half-Theelin, and all Jedi. Well, Jedi Padawan, at least. Jecki Lon will play a key role on Star Wars: The Acolyte, which debuts June 4 on Disney+, and Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive first photos of the character in action. Not only that, but we spoke with the woman playing her, Logan’s Dafne Keen, who shares some insight and intel on the character.
The Padawan to Lee Jung-jae’s Jedi Master Sol, Jecki Lon will find herself engaged with a mysterious new threat to the Jedi Order. And show creator Leslye Headland was insistent on getting Keen to play the part. "We have to get Dafne, period," Headland previously told EW. "I just wanted to see X23 with a lightsaber in their hand. That has to happen."
Check out our interview with Keen, who was keen to chat about the first on-screen entry from Star Wars’ High Republic era.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what can you tell us about Jecki Lon?
DAFNE KEEN: Well, I'm very excited that we know her name now, because it was secret for so long. And I'm very happy that I get to say that she's an alien and that she's a Padawan and that she's a Jedi. She’s a mixed species — part Theelin, part human. She's very cool and I have some very cool fights I do with the lightsaber. I really love her. She's a great character and was really fun to play. I'm very excited that the trailer came out. I was buzzing for days.
Jecki is Sol’s Padawan, so what kind of Padawan is she and what is her relationship like with her master?
I'd say she is a very dedicated Padawan. She's definitely in awe of him in a very kind of sweet way. She thinks the absolute world of him in a way that I think they have a very sweet relationship, but she's much more aware of the authority difference than, for example, Obi-Wan and Anakin. She's very much like, “No, he's the master and I'm the Padawan and he's perfect. And everything he says, I have to follow to the T.”
So what was the makeup process like playing a Theelin?
It was an hour and a half, two hours in the morning. So I'd usually get picked up at 3:30 AM, and then I'd go in, and the wonderful makeup artists Rob and Jeremy would just sit me in this chair and I'd get a bald cap on me that went from my eyebrows on my head up and would cover all my hair.
And then I had a piece of prosthetic that went over my eyebrows and my head to cover a bald surface, and then I'd get airbrushed white, and then I'd get freckles airbrushed on me, and I'd get horns stuck on me. And my wig and my hands had to be painted, my nails had to be painted — if any parts of my body were revealed, they had to be air brushed.
It was honestly really fun. I loved the whole process of it. It was really freeing not having my face. It was really nice to just show up at work and be in someone else's face. It was really enjoyable and it completely changed my approach to the character once I was in the makeup and changed the way I moved and everything. And also having horns on you is actually a safety hazard, so I can’t hug people on set, which is quite weird. [Laughs]
So did the makeup just totally just change the way you carried yourself?
100 percent. It completely changed how I moved. It also completely changed the character. When I read the script, I had one idea of what I was going to do, and it completely changed it in a way that I think is much more interesting than what I thought.
I thought she was going to be really methodical and cold and calculated, and then as soon as I was in that makeup, she became much more still methodical and a perfectionist and high achiever, but with much more of an ingenuity and a curiosity and a true love for the craft that is being a Jedi. Which was really interesting because I am someone who moves their eyebrows a lot, and not having eyebrows completely changes the expression on your face. And not having eyebrows gave me a sort of sweeter appearance, which completely changed the character in a way.
Tell me about your conversations with showrunner Leslye Headland in terms of what she told you about her vision for the show and your character in particular.
Leslye is one of the most amazing people I've ever worked with. She's such an interesting director in the sense that she has an innate trust with actors and her crew that it makes you trust her more. She's so confident in the people she's hiring and she has such a broad understanding of Star Wars and of cinema in general that I truly feel like I would follow that woman to the trenches.
We had a lot of conversations about Jecki, but ultimately she was very good at being like, “This is what I know for a fact, and then I'm going to give you space to think about what you want for your character.” I'd always run everything past her because she has such a brilliant mind, and we spoke a lot. I was very stunt focused, so I spoke to her a lot about how she wanted the character to get reflected within her fight styles.
A lot of Jecki was created through her relationships with the people that surround her, so there was a lot of that of us talking about what her bonds with the other Jedi are. And I was completely sold from minute one with Leslye. We hopped on a Zoom call and she told me that it was a mystery, kind of thrillery series where you go finding out more and more about the show as the episodes go on. Her whole take on Star Wars felt like if a true fan was writing a Star Wars show, which felt really exciting, and also just a very fresh take. The way that Leslye wrote this mystery-thriller was so fascinating to me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
It’s long been a part of the Star Wars mythos, but something rarely depicted in live-action: go back before Order 66 and the events of the prequels, and the galaxy was once flooded with Jedi. The sight of lightsaber-wielders moving en masse was a major moment at the end of Episode II – Attack Of The Clones – but given that Palpatine and a nascent Vader bumped all the other Jedi off shortly after, it’s rarely been seen again. The Acolyte, though, is set to deliver exactly that – the new Star Wars series, from an original idea by Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland, is set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, at the end of the largely-peaceful High Republic era. And it’s a time simply stacked with Jedi.
Which in itself begs a bigger, overarching Star Wars question: if the Jedi were once flourishing and all-powerful, how did they let it slip so badly by the time of the Skywalker Saga, when Darth Sidious violently takes over? That’s part of the big picture at play in The Acolyte. “I was very interested in, how did the Jedi get to where they are in Phantom Menace?” Headland tells Empire in our world-exclusive cover feature. “You’re definitely getting a sense that, with the Jedi, the writing may be on the wall.” With the Jedi firmly in charge, The Acolyte’s early flickers of a looming dark side threat offers a new kind of Star Wars dynamic. “The quote-unquote ‘war’ of this Star Wars is a much smaller, more personal one,” notes Headland. “The war between people, the war between characters.”
Those people include Lee Jung-jae’s Jedi Master Sol (“Massively respected and incredibly powerful,” per Headland); his Padawan, Dafne Keen’s Jecki (“She wants to be perfect for him,” Keen says); Charlie Barnett’s Jedi Knight Yord (“He’s kind of a jerk! He’s a little bit of a goody two-shoes,” admits Barnett); and Joonas Suotamo’s Wookiee Jedi, Kelnacca (“Another Star Wars dream come true,” says the actor). Not to mention, Carrie-Anne Moss as the combat-ready Master Indara, and Rebecca Henderson as an older incarnation of High Republic fan-favourite Vernestra Rwoh.
Together, they’ll be pulled into a mystery of murdered Jedi and rising darkness. “It’s one story with several reveals, and new clues and new information each episode,” Headland explains. “It’s not just a mystery that you have to find out. It’s not unlike Russian Doll. It’s almost like a spiral — it digs deeper and deeper and deeper.” For Lee, taking his first steps into Hollywood post-Squid Game, it’s that genre twist that’ll hook audiences most. “It’s going to get even more intriguing and gripping, because of that detective genre,” he promises. “It’s going to keep you on the edge of your toes, wanting to guess.” Will it be a return of the Jedi? Or a revenge of the Sith? Start lining up those suspects…
The Acolyte is a Star Wars project filled with mystery. For one, it’s an actual mystery series – set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, with a spate of Jedi murders prompting an investigation into the culprit behind those mysterious deaths. Then, there’s plenty of mystery surrounding Amandla Stenberg’s Mae – a shadowy assassin figure whose role in proceedings is being held tightly under wraps. Even the show’s title is something of a mystery: who, or what, even is ‘The Acolyte’?
As series creator Leslye Headland tells Empire, it’s a term that originates in Extended Universe lore – Legends novels which aren’t considered canon, but from which Star Wars creators often draw inspiration. “It’s a position, essentially, that someone is going to fulfil, or step into,” Headland hints in our world-exclusive cover feature. “We know with the Sith that there is a Master, we know that there is an Apprentice. But in deep EU [Expanded Universe], there’s a concept of an Acolyte, which is underneath Apprentice. So that is where I got the title from.” As a deep Star Wars acolyte herself, Headland drew inspiration from the likes of The Clone Wars animated series and fellow EU anthology book Tales Of The Bounty Hunters when devising the series.
The idea of an Acolyte, in itself, presents another mystery: who will that be? And who are they serving? Could it possibly be the mysterious Mae? “It’s a lot more complicated than that,” Stenberg tells Empire. “Which is the point of the show. Hopefully, if we did our job right, the show makes it an interesting interrogation into what it means to be on the light side or the dark side.” Let the investigation begin.
It makes so much sense, you almost wonder why it hasn’t happened already. Given Carrie-Anne Moss’ astonishing action work in The Matrix movies – with their gravity-defying wire-work and rapid-fire hand-to-hand choreography – she possesses Jedi-level talents already. And in new Star Wars series The Acolyte, creator Leslye Headland is finally connecting all of those dots. Meet Jedi Master Indara, bringing martial-arts excellence to the galaxy far, far away. As seen in the show’s first trailer, not only will the part see Moss get caught up in hand-to-hand combat with Amandla Stenberg’s mysterious Mae – she also brings Force moves into her fighting. Yes: she knows Force-fu.
“She is very much inspired by Trinity,” Headland tells Empire of Master Indara. Casting Moss was, she says, a “no-brainer” – if it means Star Wars fans see Indara as ‘Trinity with a lightsaber’, that’s the intended effect. “I personally wanted to see someone who had the highest status you could imagine in a Force-fu fight – somebody that would come in and you immediately would be like, ‘Oh, that’s the most powerful Jedi in the room.’ And that’s Trinity,” Headland states.
As for Moss, she was immediately hooked by Headland’s vision for The Acolyte – likening it to her conversations with Christopher Nolan and the Wachowskis. “I felt that a few times in my career with some of the big things I’ve done – Memento, The Matrix – where you’re talking to the filmmaker and you just go, ‘Oh, they totally get it,’” she says. And Moss, too, got plenty out of jacking into the galaxy far, far away. “Within my soul and my spirit, to get to play this Jedi Master and train for the fight was [an] amazing experience,” Moss enthuses. “A part of me forgot how much I love action. I love it. It’s hard. But I was just really thrilled that I could do it, and I wanted to do it well. ‘Gimme another take! Gimme another take!’” Whatever dark side force is rising in The Acolyte: dodge this.
Star Wars’ most legendary Wookiee, Chewbacca, is many things – a loyal friend, a stellar co-pilot, a great shot, and a guilty devourer of Porgs, among others. But he’s not exactly Jedi material. His impulsiveness and propensity for guttural growls are two of the reasons he’s so beloved by fans – even though those traits are hardly the Jedi way. But in The Acolyte, for the first time in live-action, Star Wars will bring us a lightsaber-wielding Wookiee Jedi in full flow. Meet Kelnacca, an all-new walking carpet, and “another Star Wars dream come true” for actor Joonas Suotamo – the man who picked up the Chewie baton from Peter Mayhew on the sequel trilogy and Solo.
“Ever since [I was] five years old, I've been fantasising about being a Jedi, like every kid,” Suotamo tells Empire. “When the word ‘Jedi’ was first mentioned [in talks for The Acolyte], I felt really excited – like a little kid who finally gets his favourite toy on his birthday.”
Shaping an all-new kind of Wookiee meant going back to what Suotamo learned while playing Chewbacca. “Peter told me right from the get-go that Chewbacca is a mime character,” Suotamo recalls. “The audience doesn't understand what he's saying exactly, but they [interpret] his mannerisms, and every little twitch, and every little movement, and roar.” From there, it was a case of using those principles to make his Acolyte character something new and different. “Kelnacca being a Jedi, that sets certain expectations to how you carry yourself in the line of duty,” explains Suotamo, promising a less impulsive fuzzball. “There are certain assumptions that can be made as to whether he lets his emotions take control of him to the extent that Chewbacca would, for example. It was very interesting to bake that into the character and try to personify that on screen.”
Of course, Kelnacca isn’t the first Wookiee Jedi in all of Star Wars. The Clone Wars’ Youngling arc introduced budding Jedi Gungi – while the High Republic era of novels and comics (a time period which culminates in The Acolyte) features fan-favourite Force-wielding Wookiee Padawan Burryaga on the page. “I was aware of the character, and I talked to the High Republic writers at a convention,” Suotamo says of the books – but notes that he hasn’t read Burryaga’s adventures. “I also wanted to differentiate Kelnacca from Burryaga, and not copy too much from those stories.” Now, who knows what ‘May the Force be with you’ is in Shyriiwook?
For the most part, The Acolyte is set to be an entirely new Star Wars experience. It’s set in an unexplored era, 100 years prior to The Phantom Menace; it has an entirely new cast of Jedi; its mystery plot is being kept tightly under wraps. But for fans of The High Republic novels – set 100 years before The Acolyte – there’ll be a familiar face. Rebecca Henderson is playing Vernestra Rwoh – a High Republic character who, in the books, is a prodigious young Jedi Knight who passed the trials at 15, and soon finds herself facing the threat of the marauding Nihil. In The Acolyte, the green-skinned Mirialan is now 116 years old – and a fully-fledged Jedi Master based in the temple on Coruscant.
The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland is thrilled to have Rwoh be part of her series. “I absolutely love Vernestra. You can tell, because I cast my wife,” she laughs while speaking to Empire. But, she says, much has changed in the time between the High Republic novels and where we find Vernestra now – she’s “been through some shit,” according to the showrunner. “That has resulted in her going from this fun-seeking adventurer character [in the books], to a little bit closer to the [type of] Jedi that we see in The Phantom Menace,” Headland teases. Most notably, in the High Republic books, Vernestra has converted her purple lightsaber so that its blade can also become a lightwhip – though Headland is keeping schtum on whether we’ll see some lightwhip action in The Acolyte.
While books like Out Of The Shadows see Rwoh figuring out her earliest years as a Jedi Knight, the significant time-jump in The Acolyte means she holds serious stature in the series. “Because she has been around for so long, she has basically met everyone that has come through the Temple, and seen them all die their natural deaths if they’re living a natural human life,” explains Henderson. “She’s known [Lee Jung-jae’s Jedi Master] Sol since he was a tiny child.”
Vernestra Rwoh is, Headland confirms, the only High Republic novel character set to appear in The Acolyte – for now. But should feature seasons be granted, there are thoughts of other characters from the books who could make the leap to the screen. “I’ve already talked to Pablo Hidalgo about it,” teases Headland. Start your guesses now for who could be next.
Exclusive: The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg talks the show's "contemporary" and prequel-inspired sensibilities
The Acolyte is the next live-action Star Wars show to hit our screens, and it looks like something very different for the galaxy far, far away.
For one thing, it's set in the High Republic era, which has never been depicted in live-action before. And, as star Amandla Stenberg tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday April 25, which features Furiosa on the cover, the Star Wars show will blend the old and new.
"We are the prequel to the prequels," Stenberg says. "And the prequels have this kind of prestige to them, this monarchical vibe. So one of my main questions going in was: are we going to maintain that sensibility? And yes, in many ways we do, while also incorporating elements that feel really contemporary and relatable. When I watched [the finished episodes] I was really struck by how universal the story was."
You can also check out an exclusive picture from The Acolyte above, which sees Charlie Barnett's Yord Fandar and Lee Jung-jae's Sol in their Jedi robes.
The rest of the cast includes Carrie-Anne Moss, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Joonas Suotamo, and Manny Jacinto. Leslye Headland is showrunner.
The Acolyte is released on June 5. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, April 25.
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