Leslye Headland, the showrunner of The Acolyte, confirmed she’s using the show and Star Wars to push discussion on gender norms.
Leslye Headland attends the UK Premiere of Lucasfilm’s ‘The Acolyte’ at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, on May 28, 2024. (Photo by StillMoving.Net for Disney)
In an interview with Collider, Headland was asked about the show’s approach to gender norms by Maggie Lovitt after confirming there is a possible romantic relationship developing between the characters of Osha and Qimir that Headland dubs Oshamir. A relationship that somehow forms after Osha watches Qimir brutally murder her Jedi compatriots in front of her.
Nevertheless, Lovitt asks, “Speaking about costumes and symbolism, I love how this ship plays with gender norms. You have this flowy outfit that Qimir has on and Osha is a Mek. I see people starting to pick up on that a little because he’s so femme-coded, and his clothes and the fact that he’s cooking for her, and he’s very soft-spoken. And then you have her wearing the pants and being like, ‘I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna shank you.'”
Headland responds, “It’s so wildly intentional that I don’t know what to say.”
The Stranger (Manny Jacinto) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
She would then go on to elaborate, “It’s so clear what’s going on. So anybody that’s picking up on it, congrats, awesome. But again, the dynamics had to be what they are after what he did in [Episode] 5. He cannot seem like an alpha male-y, intimidating — we know he’s capable of that from 5 — but that cannot be his dynamic with her. It wouldn’t make sense!”
“We have to see this other side of him, and we have to see specifically the way he is with her. He never let Mae see his face, and he let her see him naked. You know what I mean? The character design was very, very intentional,” she added.
The Stranger (Manny Jacinto) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
Next, Headland detailed, “But also this is, again, this is the story of the bad guys. So unlike Rey and Kylo, where Rey is always in these lighter colors, and he’s in black, then the Sith would be in white and the character, really, that’s struggling with both sides would be wearing gray.”
“It just seems like it had to be that way,” she concluded.
Manny Jacinto in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
At the beginning of June, Headland confirmed that she was into the show because it was the gayest Star Wars ever. When asked if this was the fun element, Headland responded, “No, I don’t think so and yet people have told me it’s the gayest Star Wars and I am frankly … into it.”
We are happy to report that #TheAcolyte is “arguably the gayest #StarWars” yet. 🌈 Happy Pride Month! 😉 pic.twitter.com/3oJSykc4Kq
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 4, 2024
Headland would later question the sexuality of C-3PO, “And are you telling me with a straight face that C-3PO is straight?”
TheWrap interviewer responded, “They’re a couple. That’s what I think.” Headland then declared, “I think it’s canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian.”
(L-R): Director Leslye Headland and Lee Jung-jae on the set of Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Headland had also previously confirmed during an interview at Star Wars Celebration that she pitched the show as lesbian fan fiction, “When I saw Frozen as a grown a** woman, I cried through the entire movie. There was just something about the relationship between the sisters, the like devillainization of the classic kind of fairy tale ‘bad guy,’ you know, the concept of true love being between two sisters and not a heterosexual relationship. It just destroyed me, completely.”
She continued, “And I thought, ‘Gosh, I would love to make something like this, for lack of a better term, Disney.’ Meaning something that like my parents would have allowed me to see when I was younger as a queer person, but I would have been able to understand as a queer person. And I think I would have had a completely different life. And so I really was inspired by it and was like, ‘God, I would love to make a story like this.’”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Leslye Headland onstage during the Acolyte studio panel at the Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
Headland then shared she took this idea and pitched it as The Acolyte, “And so when I was developing this original idea to pitch to [Lucasfilm President] Kathleen [Kennedy], I thought well, ‘You know, it can’t just be that.’ When you’re pitching Star Wars you have to pull from what George [Lucas] was also interested in.”
“It can’t just be like well I’m referencing- especially if you’re gonna set something during the High Republic, end of High Republic into prequels. You don’t have the Skywalker Saga. You can’t reference a character that was created by George and/or Filoni. You have to create your own new characters,” she added.
LGBTQ+ activist Leslye Headland is a new director in the Star Wars franchise:
Her goal for the films? To make it LGBTQ-inclusive and similar to Disney fairy tales. pic.twitter.com/Anfkn9RciK
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 19, 2024
Headland also confirmed to IMDb, “I did do a couple of, like, RPG campaigns during COVID with my friends on ZOOM and there are a couple of characters from those campaigns that may or may not be in the show. So there’s a little bit of that.”
She added, “The fan fiction that I wrote was many, many years ago, pre-internet. So it’s not quite what the kids are doing now. But I will say I was always interested in female protagonists that were leaning toward the Dark Side of the Force and being interested in that.”
“I think because when I was little and I heard Ben Kenobi say, ‘Vader was seduced by the Dark Side,’ there was just something about that, that like made my adolescent brain freak out. Like, why did he use that word ‘seduce?’ Like, why did that happen? So I think possibly some of that ended up in the show as well,” she stated.
READ: Actress Dafne Keen Confirms ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Is Pushing Queer Agenda
On top of Headland’s comments, Dafne Keen also confirmed the show was pushing a queer themes. She was asked by Decider, ““Is The Acolyte continuing its wonderfully queer agenda by introducing a possible romance between Jecki and Osha??”
Keen responded, “I am so happy you asked that because this is my favorite question ever. I think, for Jeckie, it’s very confusing because as a Jedi you’re not allowed to have feelings for other people.”
Charlie Barnett, who claimed Anakin Skywalker destroyed the Death Star, corrected her, “Attachments.”
Nevertheless, Keen continued, “And I think… I think she… Hehehe, I think she does. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I think she does.”
Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Keen went on to inform the outlet that her character “liked” Amandla Stenberg’s character in the show’s fourth episode.
Keen elaborated, “Jeckie’s such a young character. She’s an 18-year-old, but she’s not a normal 18-year-old. Like she hasn’t gone to school and she hasn’t had interactions with other like people. So it’s her first real experience, I think, of those kinds of feelings and almost the guilt and confusion that comes with it.”
“She’s such a controlled, like self-judging, like perfect student, that I think it’s also almost self-hatred that comes from having those feelings and the kind of constriction, but also the inevitable magnetism that she has towards Osha because of that,” she added.
(L-R): Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
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