The Acolyte Creator Leslye Headland Regrets Not Exploring One Backstory

Warning! The Following Contains SPOILERS from The Acolyte Season 1.

Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) wields a cool, crackling purple whip lightsaber, but leaving most of the Mirialan’s backstory on the table turns out to be Leslye Headland’s biggest regret from Season 1 of The Acolyte. The creator and showrunner of the Star Wars show honestly didn’t utilize the Jedi Master enough throughout the course of the Disney+ series’ eight episodes.

However, there were so many other characters to concentrate on, including Mae and Osha (Amandla Stenberg), the Stranger (Manny Jacinto) and Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), all of whom took precedence in the storytelling. For that reason, Vernestra’s backstory largely remains a mystery and unexplored in Season 1. Headland said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“That was something I kept trying to slip in,
but there was so much [sighs]. It’s a really packed season, and I love that. My goal is to explore as many nooks and crannies as I can in the time I am given.
And Star Wars is the perfect place to do that because there’s nothing but good nooks and crannies —
all of this world that’s available to you that you can dig into.
So, of course, there were things that I didn’t get to explore.”

The Acolyte

2/5

Star Wars series that take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.

Cast

Amandla Stenberg , Lee Jung-jae , Joonas Suotamo , Charlie Barnett , Dafne Keen , Leah Brady , Manny Jacinto , Rebecca Henderson , Carrie-Anne Moss , Jodie Turner-Smith , Dean-Charles Chapman , Lauren Brady , Anthony J. Abraham , Thara Shöön , Danielle Xin Yao Waterman , Sienna Khiroya , Jeramiah Evans , Dan Milne , Thomas Coombes , Archie Singh Swali , Nick Court , Ed Kear , Jumayn Hunter , Scroobius Pip , Abigail Thorn , Margarita Levieva , Amy Tsang , Saskia Allen , Deborah Rosan , Tabitha Alege , Paul Bullion , Indra Ové , Derek Arnold , Lewis Young

Seasons

1

Studio

Disney+, Lucasfilm

Franchise

Star Wars

Number of Episodes

8

Streaming Service(s)

Disney+

Expand

In the final scene of the series finale, Vernestra seems at her wits’ end, and for that reason, the Jedi Master decides to consult a much higher authority. And that’s when fans get their first and only glimpse of the back of Master Yoda’s head. Headland added:

Leslye Headland Decided to Focus on Other Characters in Season 1

One of the most intriguing reveals in Season 1 of The Acolyte unquestionably comes when Master Vernestra ignites her legendary lightsaber whip for the first time in a live-action Star Wars setting. But showrunner Leslye Headland had to sacrifice spending more time with Vernestra so she could flesh out and tie up the magical twins, Master Sol and the Stranger’s storylines by the eighth and final episode. Headland said during the same sit-down:

“I think it sets up future storylines that could be really compelling […]
We wanted to answer a lot of questions.
We wanted to show Qimir’s [aka the Stranger] master.
We weren’t going to wait a second season for that.
We wanted to wrap up the twin storyline.
We were not going to leave everybody hanging.
They’ve sat through all of this, and we want to reward people for watching.”

Related

The Acolyte Showrunner Teases Eerie Darth Plagueis Connection with Star Wars’ Magical Twins

The Acolyte’s creator, Leslye Headland talks about the twins and compares Plagueis’ life-creating power to an “atomic bomb” in the Sith’s competition.

Should the powers-that-be decide to greenlight Season 2 of The Acolyte, fans can expect Darth Plagueis the Wise’s influence to play a role in what comes next for Headland’s series, which takes place 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. However, Headland reveals that she has heard “nothing” about a follow-up season being in the works, at the time of this writing.