STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE Showrunner Compares Her Approach Developing the Series to Jean-Luc Picard

We don’t really know much about the new live-action Star Wars series The Acolyte that Lucasfilm is currently developing. All we know is that It’s described as “a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.”

The series is being developed by showrunner Leslye Headland, and in a recent interview with AV Club, she talks about her approach to developing the series with her team and compares her process to Jean-Luc Picard and how he runs his ship:

"So that was what I really wanted—an active conversation between my writers and myself, and not so much a room full of people that would kind of just automatically agree with what I say. Which is good sometimes; sometimes it’s nice to have everybody love my pitch. It’s not Star Wars, but I think a lot about [Jean-Luc] Picard, and the way that he would utilize his crew and say, 'What do you guys think? Any suggestions? What should we do next?'"

She goes on to explain that this kind of openness leads to debates among the writers as they would discuss what directions to take the story":

"And kind of hearing the debates and the sort of Socratic conversation that would result. I wanted to put the room together in that way. That also means hiring people that are not necessarily the die-hard, cutthroat fan that I am when it comes to Star Wars stuff. It is weird to be the person who’s going, 'Well, in 325 BBY,' and everyone’s like, 'What are you talking about?' 'Hold on, I’ll send you a link.' Everyone’s like, 'Should that be another person that’s doing that? Why is the showrunner doing that?'" And I’m like, 'Here’s a picture, this is what he looks like.'"

I’m very curious about this mysterious project, and it’ll be cool to see what exactly it ends up being. It’s kinda funny, though, that the classic Star Trek character Jean-Luc Picard is inspiring the development of the series.