THE ACOLYTE Showrunner Offers Insight Into Darth Plagueis and How He Figures in the Future of the Series
The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland once again talks about Darth Plagueis who very briefly appeared in the Season Finale of the series and teases how he fits into the future of the series.
It wasn’t all that surprising to see Darth Plagueis as it was previously teased that he would be coming. Plagueis is the Sith Lord who eventually ends up training Palpatine, and in the series, he is shown in the shadows watching The Stranger and Osha from afar.
I assume he wants to get his hands on Osha to finally figure out how to create life, which is one of the things he’s obsessed with. While talking to IndieWire Headland shared: "Plagueis was always in the finale, in every version.
“There was a version where he was the button of the finale [instead of Yoda]. You want to feel Osha’s triumph. You want to feel her joining forces with The Stranger. Plagueis stepped on [that moment]."
She added: "I was OK with having the cameo come so early if it meant I could wrap up these characters in a way that their final shot was not a, 'And he’s been pulling the strings the whole time' feeling.”
As for what the future holds for Plagueis in the future of the series, his presence is not good for Qimir and Osha. Headland said:
"Even though [Osha and The Stranger] are standing there, sort of looking out at the sunset, ready to conquer the world, the tragedy is we know they don’t. We know there can only be two."
"We know Plagueis is there. We know that these two are doomed in some way. So to me it’s a bittersweet tragedy, this foreboding ending. But that’s because I know about the Sith lineage and all these other things, whereas I think a different subset of the audience can be like, 'They’re married!'"
The showrunner went on to talk about designing the live-action version of Plagueis and where things stand with the Sith. She said: Obviously the species has been determined, if not by [Star Wars] canon, then by Legends and definitely by head-canon for everybody.
“So when we were designing him and talking about his appearance, it was a lot of Crimson Peak, of Guillermo del Toro."
She went on to talk about The Sith in this era of the Star Wars universe, saying: "They’re not running the First Order. They’re not running the Empire. They’re not the Chancellor of the Senate. They’re hiding out. The Sith [in this time] are fighting for survival."
There's been speculation over the years that it was actually Plagueis who created Anakin Skywalker, which, I guess, could be something we see him learn how to do in this series, if that is the direction they are taking things.