Star Wars: The Acolyte Creator Leslye Headland Explains Show’s Timeline

Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s seventh and penultimate episode, “Choice,” was released earlier this week and it answered many of the questions that have been looming throughout the season. The episode was another flashback to Brenok, this time showing the events from the Jedi’s perspective. In the third episode, “Destiny,” fans saw the events from Osha and Mae’s perspective. ComicBook recently had the chance to join a press roundtable with The Acolyte creator, Leslye Headland, and she spoke about some of the episode’s biggest moments. We also asked her how they chose to map out what would be seen in “Destiny” versus “Choice.”

“We settled on the genre of a mystery thriller early on for the season,” Headland explained. “So we wanted to have three major mysteries, which was ‘Why was Mae killing the Jedi she’s killing?’ ‘Who is Mae’s Master and how does he fit into all of this?’ And then, ‘What actually happened on Brendok between the Jedi and the witches?’ So what we wanted to map out was that Rashomon kind of idea of Episode 3. Tease up the answer for the first question, which is, ‘Why is this young woman hunting these Jedi? Oh, okay.’ She believes that they stole her sister and invaded her home, but by the end of Episode 4, all those Jedi are dead except for Sol. So then it’s sort of like we’re wrapping that up.”

“All three of those can’t be solved in the finale. So we wrap up that one. Then you’re thinking, ‘Okay, so now the Master will be the next thing. He gets unveiled in the next episode. So that gets solved. And then the last one, which is the one that’s most personal between the protagonists of the show, is what actually happened on Brendok, though that became a reason to rebreak Episode 3, now that everybody knows the characters and understands what’s at stake emotionally for everybody, now here’s what actually happened. So it was mapped out in terms of those three mysteries.” 

Can Master Sol Be Redeemed?

During the roundtable attended by ComicBook, Headland was asked about Sol’s choice and whether or not he can be redeemed.

“I think it’s really up to interpretation,” she explained when Jedi News asked about Sol. “I can say, my personal opinion, which is that I think that it’s just super messy. Each of the Jedi have their own blind spot in this episode, and Sol’s is definitely an emotional, spiritual blind spot. He just feels like, ‘This is my padawan, I’m Qui-Gon, this is my Anakin, this is the warrior I am meant to train.’ And so, the paternal protectivism gets kicked in.”

“And that’s a thing that, obviously is in media especially, is usually coded as something very, very good. But I think that can also be a dangerous thing,” Headland continued. “It’s not always coming out of what’s best for the child or the object of that protected. And it could be coming out of his own preconceived notions or his inflated sense of self as well, thinking, ‘I am the person who can help this child live up to their potential. I’m the person that can save this child from potential danger.’ So I think it’s a little bit of both. It comes from a very good place and it’s very natural, but at the same time, it’s not automatically good just because you feel it.”

“I mean, I think it’s in the hands of the person harmed,” Headland added when asked by Screen Rant if Sol can be redeemed. “That’s truly what it is. Does Vader deserve redemption? Luke thinks so, and we saw what Anakin did, but Luke believes that. So I think it’s in Osha’s hands … To me, it’s between the two of them. It’s not an easy moral question for the audience to answer.” 

The season finale of Star Wars: The Acolyte drops on Disney+ on July 16th.