Star Wars: The Acolyte Showrunner Fought for Finale Cameos

Star Wars: The Acolyte’s showrunner had to fight for that massive Yoda cameo at the end. In the wake of the finale, director Hanelle M. Culpepper told Inverse‘s Lyvie Scott about the choice to include the legendary Jedi Master at the end. It turns out showrunner Leslie Headland had to really prove her case to involve such a beloved character from the Star Wars universe in this story. The High Republic is a very wide setting in this franchise. A lot of astute fans out there correctly pointed out that Yoda would have to be around if the timelines matched up. Bringing him in at the end makes a lot of sense when you’re dealing with this level of scandal. Still, it ended up being a closely guarded secret until the last moment.

She really had to fight for it, actually, but it was all a part of her plan. I give her so much credit for and getting it,” Culpepper said. “[Lucasfilm] is just very, very protective of the brand and what happens to the characters. There’s other storylines being developed by Lucasfilm as well, so it all has to fit together. It has to make sense.”

“That was the hardest secret to keep all this time, because everyone wants to know stuff,” she laughed. “I was so excited that I got to work with Yoda, but I was not able to say anything. Once that scene finally aired — literally once the credits rolled — I was like, ‘Finally, I can post now!’”

The director added, “My husband’s like, ‘No, wait, because it’s a big spoiler. Give people the chance to see it.’ So I haven’t even posted about that yet. But that was such an exciting day for me and Leslye when they brought out the trunk that he was in and you see him there, and with the puppeteer, it’s just amazing how they use the eyes and ears and make it come to life. I massively geeked out on that day.”

Another Massive Cameo In The Acolyte

In a pretty wild turn of events, Yoda was not the biggest cameo of this episode. During the Pac finale, Darth Plagueis reared his spooky head as well. Leslye Headland also wanted to make sure she got the famous Sith in there to boot. IndieWire asked the showrunner about the choice to include one a Star Wars biggest bad guys in the final episode of the season. She told the outlet that at one point, the Sith would’ve been the last thing viewers saw rather than Yoda.

“Plagueis was always in the finale, in every version,” Headland recalled. “There was a version where he was the button of the finale [instead of Yoda] … You want to feel Osha’s triumph. You want to feel her joining forces with The Stranger. Plagueis stepped on [that moment].”

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