Politics and populist filmmaking don’t make for easy bedfellows, something Star Wars has only recently experienced via the long-running and constant backlash towards Gina Carano, which ultimately led to the actress being dropped from The Mandalorian. However, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland has revealed she’s planning on incorporating a heavy political element into her Disney Plus series.
The Russian Doll creator and former personal assistant to the disgraced Harvey Weinstein has been offering up the first major details surrounding the project, which takes place at the end of the High Republic era and has been described as a mystery thriller with a martial arts bent. In a new interview, Headland outlined that she’s been warned not to make Star Wars too overtly political, but countered by saying it was always a key component of George Lucas’ time at the helm.
“I mean, it’s funny, because a lot of the feedback that I’ll get, and I use the term feedback very lightly, but when I do go on social media, the feedback is ‘Don’t make Star Wars political’. I’m like, ‘George Lucas made it political. Those are political films’. War is, by nature, political. That’s just what’s up.
It’s truly what he was interested in talking about and looking at and digging into. So it’s kind of impossible to tell a story within his universe that doesn’t have to do with something that has to be that the characters see externally reflected in whatever’s happening in the galaxy at that particular time period of when it takes place. You know? That’s another thing that we all kind of inherited from him as well, and hope to kind of keep reflecting in the work, hopefully.”
As the negativity to have encompassed The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Gina Carano and Kathleen Kennedy at numerous points over the last few years have shown, the Star Wars fanbase aren’t shy when it comes to letting their opinions be known on which parts of the sprawling franchise they don’t care for, so it’ll be fascinating to see what they make of The Acolyte‘s political leanings whenever it arrives.
Pre-production is ramping up, but it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing The Acolyte until the end of 2022 at the very earliest, but it would be at least safe to assume that Headland’s politics might extend beyond the dry talks of trade embargoes that slowed The Phantom Menace to a crawl. The concept promises much in the way of action, intrigue and excitement, so let’s just hope it doesn’t get too on-the-nose when it comes to ideology.