‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Leslye Headland Justifies Further Destroying Yoda’s Character By Pointing To Dave Filoni’s ‘The Clone Wars’

July 23, 2024 ·

John F. Trent

Leslye Headland, the showrunner of The Acolyte, attempted to justify her further destruction of Yoda’s character in the show’s season finale by pointing to Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars.

(L-R): Director Leslye Headland and Lee Jung-jae on the set of Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©.

In the show’s final episode, it’s shown that Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh lies to various members of the Galactic Republic about what happened on Brendok. She says, “Recently, when the truth threatened to come out, a rogue Jedi named Sol killed his accomplices to maintain the cover story. Speaking on behalf of the High Council, we wholly condemn the actions of Master Sol.”

When asked where Sol was, Rwoh says, “He was found dead on Brendok at the scene of his original crime. I believe he ended his own life.”

In reality Mae murdered Master Indarra, Master Torbin killed himself, Master Kelnacca was murdered by Qimir, and Osha murdered Sol.

(Center): Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) and Mog Adana (Harry Trevaldwyn, fourth from right) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

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Following these lies to the Senate, Rwoh then visits Yoda and informs him, “Sorry to disturb you, Master. We need to talk.”

The show then ends with the implication that Rwoh would be informing Yoda of what actually happened. All of this makes a mockery of Yoda given the Jedi Master was able to sense the death of his fellow Jedi throughout the galaxy during the events depicted in The Revenge of the Sith. It’s hard to imagine he would not have felt the deaths of Indarra, Torbin, Kelnacca, and Sol.

It’s also hard to imagine that Yoda would not have sensed that these four Jedi were covering something up after their time on Brendok. It’s likely Yoda was present as Sol campaigned to have Osha trained as a Jedi much as he was for Anakin during The Phantom Menace.

Nevertheless, Headland attempted to justify all of this telling Inverse, “It’s not like it’s the first time Yoda has hidden something from the Senate and the Republic. In The Clone Wars Season 6 it’s revealed that he covered up the creation of the clone army and asked everybody to not say who was behind it.”

Earlier in the interview, Headland noted that she had to fight to have Yoda included in the show. Inverse’s Lyvie Scott stated, “Starting from the very end of the episode and working our way back, I hear you had to fight hard to get Yoda in the stinger.”

Headland responded, “Yes. I mean, I wouldn’t say ‘fight hard’ in a totally super adversary way. It’s more like, that’s a big character. So it was not fighting in an aggressive way, but definitely a spirited conversation.”

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When pressed for more details about what the conversation was, Headland said, “Yeah, there was the logistics of it all for sure. But then there were some, I’d say almost spiritual conversations about using such an iconic character.”

“I felt strongly about it because I felt that to me, Vernestra was in a situation that was so heightened and really needed to be taken care of internally,” she elaborated. “She was already feeling this pressure of, ‘If you don’t have a suspect, then we have a real problem.’ Rayencourt suggests the internal review of the Jedi, obviously at the small council, but Chancellor Drellik doesn’t doesn’t confirm or deny that request. It felt like she had to report to her superior and let him know what’s up, and probably tell him about what happened between her and her padawan.”

When Scott notes this parallels Dooku being Yoda’s apprentice, Headland noted, “I was also just interested in Phantom Menace when he immediately is like, ‘There’s always a master and apprentice.’ It’s not like he was alive during the New Sith Wars, so I guess there’s a chance that it was a piece of information that was passed down through the generations.”

But because I had the opportunity to work in Star Wars, I just think a more interesting version of this is that he has some sort of understanding of what’s going on,” she added.

Headland then concluded, “So it just felt to me that there was something fun to explore there if we were allowed to talk about, and to do more seasons. There was a large conversation about including him. But I just thought… I mean, it’s my show.”