THE ACOLYTE Showrunner Leslye Headland Reveals How Dave Filoni Helped Her on the Series
The third episode of The Acolyte introduced audiences to a coven of witches that wield the Force, which they refer to as the Thread. The witches featured in the episode have no ties to the Nightsisters of Dathomir.
There are a lot of elements and ideas incorporated this episode that Star Wars fans are continuing to debate. Well, it turns out that Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni had a hand in shaping what we are seeing in this series.
So, while fans complain about Headlund steering Star Wars in the wrong direction, it turns out that Filoni was guiding the showrunner along the way. So, now fans can get mad at Filoni as well!
During an interview with StarWars.com, Headland said:
"Dave Filoni very quickly became kind of a mentor of mine in terms of navigating what this part of the timeline would be like for both the Jedi and then other Force users
“It was kind of this 'A-ha!' moment for me when he told me, 'You know, not all witches are Nightsisters.'"
Costume designer Jennifer Bryan also talked about the designs of the witches, saying:
“In designing for Mother Aniseya and for the witches, I wanted to set them apart from what we've seen in previous Star Wars episodes and movies.
“I use purple as a color because it [evokes] a kind of royalty. This is a very elevated group of women, and Mother Aniseya is the queen.”
When talking about playing Mother Aniseya, actress Jodie Turner-Smith shared:
“[The filmmakers] really just allowed me to play all the different complexities of a mother. Here we have this woman who is mothering twins, so we have this symbolic representation of two different and sometimes opposing ways of being and thinking.
“Her job as their mother is to hold space for that constantly, to nurture that. And then there is the fact that she's also the leader of this coven, so she's constantly needing to move between the emotional, sensitive, softer ways of being that are required in order to mother, but also that strength, fierceness, and the hardness that's required in order to lead a group of people.
“And she's trying to impart these lessons to her children. It's not just good or bad, it's not just the light side and the dark side. It's not just Jedi and everyone else, you know. The world is multifaceted.”
All of my friends that I talk to about these kinds of shows have dropped off of The Acolyte. After the first two episodes, they’re done with it. I’ll see it through to the end, though. I can’t really talk about a show or have an opinion on it if I don’t watch it like some other people out there.