Star Wars: The Acolyte Showrunner Reveals Clone Wars Inspiration

Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s showrunner revealed that The Clone Wars ended up inspiring a lot of the upcoming Disney+ series. Leslie Headland talked to IGN about how “The Wrong Jedi” gave her a ton of room to work with when starting The Acolyte. Making these massive shows for Disney’s streaming service can be a strange task. Star Wars is so expansive that you can literally go in any direction from the word go. For Headland, the idea of the moral grey areas and the presence of Nightsisters marked an instant bookmark in the franchise’s lore. Add that to the preocupation with the bad guys in the Science Fiction series and the showrunner’s choice makes a whole lot of sense. Check out what else the Russian Doll creator had to say down below.

Headland told the outlet, “But also, The Clone Wars [inspired The Acolyte], a lot being inspired by Nightsisters. We don’t have any Nightsisters in this show, but being inspired by them, being inspired by Asajj Ventress. My favorite episode is ‘The Wrong Jedi.’ I definitely took some inspiration from that.” That’s a lot to chew on. Ahsoka Tano finds herself in the middle of a massive crisis during that Clone Wars outing. It’s up to the young Jedi to clear her name when she’s accused of an unspeakable crime. The viewer knows she didn’t do it, and there’s some catharsis to the reveal. However, the incident forever changes Ashoka’s attachment to the Jedi Order with lasting consequences for the series as a whole.

Star Wars: The Acolyte Pulls From All Corners Of The Franchise

This all backs up previous comment from the showrunner. In an interview with Total Film, Headland explained that Star Wars: The Acolyte will honor many different eras of the franchise. She argued, “It’s a show packed with everything I wanted to explore: I wanted EU [Expanded Universe] stuff in there, references to the original trilogy, The Phantom Menace, the Disney sequels… it’s absolutely packed. Because you never know, you may not get the chance again.”

“[Cinematographer] Chris [Teague] and I talked a lot about honoring George Lucas’ camera moves,” Headland continued. “I would say the original trilogy became our touchpoint for how to craft the world, while the Episode I-ness of the show is a bit more thematic.”

Do you love that episode too? How excited are you for The Acolyte? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!