The Acolyte boss Leslye Headland has revealed she wanted to channel the "shittiness" of the original Star Wars movies in the new show.
The upcoming Disney+ series takes place around 100 years before the events of the prequel trilogy, focusing on a Jedi Master who crosses paths with an old Padawan while investigating a series of crimes.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Headland opened up about making a more grounded show in terms of production and script, revealing that from the get-go she didn’t "want to shoot" on the Star Wars soundstage known as The Volume.
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"I mean, listen – those shows are gorgeous," she noted of series such as The Mandalorian, which use the technology.
"But I just thought my Star Wars, because I'm getting the opportunity to do this as a super fan, I just wanted to borrow all that stuff from the original trilogy only because that was my introduction to Star Wars.
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"I remember as a little kid being like, 'How is this fantasy sci-fi world taking place in this kind of shitty place,' you know? It looks real beat-up, it looks lived in," Headland continued.
"So that dichotomy, even though as a kid I couldn't articulate it, that was just wild. 'A long time ago' was somehow part of the charm – the shittiness of it all."
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The showrunner added that making a more grounded show "absolutely" helped to tackle bigger ideas explored in The Acolyte.
"I think you have to start small," she noted. "I mean, this was something that [Lucasfilm boss] Kathleen [Kennedy] said to me very early on.
"She said, 'Wherever you go with this, as you're writing, just remember that this story needs to be personal, it needs to be intimate, and it should be something that you could take out of the Star Wars world and put into a modern-day setting, and it would still work.'"
The Acolyte will stream exclusively on Disney+ from June 5.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
Ali is Hearst UK's deputy social strategy director. He has been covering TV and movies for more than six years, all while wrangling Digital Spy's social media and video channels - for which he received a PPA 30 Under 30 award. He specializes in writing about anime, LGBTQ+ representation, science fiction, and comic book adaptations. Recently he's begun collecting Star Wars interviews like Infinity Stones and has spoken with The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal, Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy and the creative team behind The Bad Batch. Dave Filoni, you're next.
