Star Wars: The Acolyte Showrunner Compares Her Approach to Series to Jean-Luc Picard

We know next to nothing about Lucasfilm's upcoming slate of Star Wars projects. We do know The Book of Boba Fett is on its way this year, and The Mandalorian Season Three will film sometime within the next year, hopefully. Other shows like Leslye Headland's The Acolyte are deep in development, even though little is known about the plot or any characters involved.

That said, Headland recently dove across franchise lines to describe how she's running her writer's room. According to the Russian Doll creator, she's running the ship like Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). In a recent sit-down with AV Club, the writer explained she wanted a writing staff from all corners of fandom — or maybe even writers with little Star Wars knowledge at all.

"So that was what I really wanted—an active conversation between my writers and myself, and not so much a room full of people that would kind of just automatically agree with what I say," Headland said of her staff. "Which is good sometimes; sometimes it's nice to have everybody love my pitch. It's not Star Wars, but I think a lot about [Jean-Luc] Picard, and the way that he would utilize his crew and say, 'What do you guys think? Any suggestions? What should we do next?'"

She said that openness often led to debates among the writers as they would discuss what directions to take the show next.

"And kind of hearing the debates and the sort of Socratic conversation that would result. I wanted to put the room together in that way," Headland added. "That also means hiring people that are not necessarily the die-hard, cutthroat fan that I am when it comes to Star Wars stuff. It is weird to be the person who's going, 'Well, in 325 BBY,' and everyone's like, 'What are you talking about?' 'Hold on, I'll send you a link.' Everyone's like, 'Should that be another person that's doing that? Why is the showrunner doing that?'" And I'm like, 'Here's a picture, this is what he looks like.'"

When Star Wars: The Acolyte was first announced last December, Lucasfilm film revealed the series would be set sometime in the "final days of the High Republic," prior to the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Other than that, no character have been announced.

What do you think of the first details surrounding Star Wars: The Acolyte? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!