Leslye Headland says that she mostly stays off the internet, which is about the smartest thing I can imagine doing in her position as The Acolyte’s showrunner, given what’s been happening online.
But she’s been happy to give interviews and explain her thought process and display her endless encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars, and what she wanted to bring into The Acolyte.
Now that the show has aired its finale, she can talk more about her hopes for The Acolyte season 2 and what she can’t talk about gives us some clues as well. The new interview from Inverse is great, and features some solid quotes about what may be coming with season 2, should it actually exist:
When asked about whether Osha and Qimir might decide to simply not be Sith, and become something else more free without labels:
“Yeah, I can’t talk to you about that.”
Welp. She also said they filmed a kiss scene between the two, but that wasn’t used, both saddening but also delighting “Oshamir” shippers.
When asked about if she knows season 2 is happening:
“I do not.”
When asked about things she has planned for a potential season:
- A relationship between Mae and Vernestra, now that Sol is dead.
- Obviously more exploration between the “juicy” pairing of Osha and Qimir.
- Expansion of the Plagueis cameo, and more stuff brought in from existing High Republic material and Legends as well. She’s talking with Pablo Hidalgo about pulling more characters from the High Republic like Vernesetra.
On the #RenewTheAcolyte internet campaign:
It made her feel great and she loves that people are invested in the show. She’s especially happy with how the character of the Stranger unfolded, and she really enjoyed creating Aniseya, and wants to explore the concept of accidentally creating a religion through a desire to survive.
Again, it remains unclear if Disney is going to pull the trigger on The Acolyte season 2 due to its high cost and estimated low viewership. But it’s its first live-action High Republic series, which it has a lot invested into creatively, and clearly there are plans for a season 2 that would embrace things the current fanbase of the show loves. I do not think they care at all about the toxic YouTuber/Twitter/review bombing reaction to the series, and that won’t be a consideration.
I hope we learn more soon, but my guess is that it may be a while until we get confirmation one way or the other. I’m starting to have more hope, though.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
