Star Wars: The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland confirmed that her series is “the gayest Star Wars,” and she’s into it. She also claims that R2-D2 is a lesbian.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: (L-R) Leslye Headland, Dave Filoni, Chief Creative Officer, Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm attend the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
In an interview with TheWrap, Headland first feigned surprise that making Star Wars gay would not be a talking point. She said, “Is it going to be a talking point?”
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
READ: ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Confirmed To Feature Lesbian Character
Actress Amandla Stenberg then chimed in saying, “Because nerds are gay.” When TheWrap’s interviewer stated, “Well, some nerds are very not gay and are very threatened by gay stuff.” Stenberg responded, “Well, that’s true. But in my world nerds are gay.”
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.”
Mae (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
Next, Amandla Stenberg declared, “I think Star Wars is so gay already. I mean have you seen the ‘fits. We’d be like look how gay this is and send each other a reference photo.”
Headland then said, “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.”
Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
This is not surprising given Headland confirmed last year that she pitched the show as lesbian fan fiction with a Star Wars veneer. She said during an interview at Star Wars Celebration, “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.’”
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 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.
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)
READ: Leslye Headland Declares People Opposed To Wokeness Are Not Star Wars Fans
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.
What do you make of Headland confirming The Acolyte is the gayest Star Wars and claiming that R2-D2 is a lesbian?
NEXT: Rumor: Leslye Headland’s ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Will Change The Force Into Being A Female Entity
