Star Wars: The Acolyte Creator Explains Why Yoda Showed Up in Season Finale

With Star Wars: The Acolyte taking place more than a century before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, audiences weren’t anticipating the appearance of major figures from the galaxy far, far away, though the final scene featured a glimpse at Jedi Master Yoda. More than merely being an arbitrary appearance from the character to excite fans, showrunner Leslye Headland addressed how the series was attempting to bring balance to the Force, as the season finale also included the live-action debut of Darth Plagueis, with Yoda seemingly counteracting that evil presence. A Season 2 of Star Wars: The Acolyte has yet to be confirmed, though Headland has teased that both Yoda and Plagueis would factor into potential storylines.

“That’s why it was important to introduce Yoda,” Headland shared with Entertainment Weekly. “If you were going to introduce Plagueis, then you needed a formidable other side of that. As somebody that knows who Plagueis is and knows where the lineage of the Sith is headed, it would be imbalanced if you didn’t have somebody on the light side who carried as much gravitas. So to me it just made sense.”

She added, “Vernestra keeps saying ‘tip the scales’ … and I think you just needed something on the other side. If you’re going to introduce Plagueis, there can’t be that gap. The Jedi have to have their heavy hitter.”

While it seemed like a given that Yoda would have to show up to counteract the villainy of Plagueis, Headland also knew she didn’t want to commit to showing anything more than a hint of the Jedi Master.

“Plagueis was always in the script and was always meant to be a tease for a second season,” the filmmaker expressed. “It also felt like there needed to be something on the other side. So I was in prep and I thought of literally the shot that you see of Vernestra coming in and seeing him.”

She continued, “I knew I didn’t want to have a [full] scene with Yoda … I was like, that’s not something I’m ready to take on.”

Stay tuned for updates on a possible Season 2 of Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Are you hoping for more of Yoda in a Season 2 of the series? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!