The Star Wars universe has been greatly diversified since Disney relaunched it, but one thing fans are still waiting on is for some proper LGBTQ representation. So far, there’s been one brief same-sex kiss between two minor characters in The Rise of Skywalker and that’s it. It looks like things may change in the future, though, as the franchise expands in the medium of TV on Disney Plus. In particular, The Acolyte could be the show that gives us Star Wars‘ first ever queer lead characters.
This may be a slight leap to say at this point, but showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) has definitely heavily hinted that The Acolyte will really push the sci-fi saga forward in terms of its LGBTQ+ rep. While speaking to The Advocate, Headland didn’t go into specifics but revealed that she’s confident her identity as “a queer woman” will inform what stories she chooses to tell in her Star Wars show.
“In the same way that the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, is about a young man living in Modesto, California, who doesn’t want to take over his dad’s hardware store… there’s just no way that me being a queer woman is not going to be reflected in my work. I could try not to do it, but why would I? It just feels like a natural extension of what I do.”
The Acolyte was announced last December alongside the rest of Lucasfilm’s upcoming slate of SW programming. All we know about it so far comes from the logline that was given at the time. Described as a “mystery thriller”, the series is said to “take us into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging Dark Side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” This makes it the first piece of screen media to take place in this recently created period in the Star Wars timeline.
Headland has previously teased that her show will be political to a degree and that it won’t shy away from its connections to The Phantom Menace, being set as it is just a few years before the beginning of the prequel trilogy. Rumors have even claimed that it will follow a young Sheev Palpatine as he ascends to power, which does somewhat fit with the teases Headland has given us so far.
The Acolyte seems to be developing smoothly, then, though it’s still a ways from landing on streaming. But it’s definitely sounding more and more like a must-see the more we heard about it.