Already excited at the prospect of more Acolyte? You’re not alone — Leslye Headland, who created the Disney+ series (and is somewhat of a big Star Wars fan herself), has already started talking about plans to take the show beyond its first season, should the audience demand it.
“I would say that when I pitched it, I definitely pitched it as a multi-season show,” Headland told Collider about the series earlier this year. That doesn’t mean that she’s not telling a complete story with this first season, however; “I am the type of writer that is not interested in an emotional cliffhanger,” she continued. “I want you to feel like you've had a particular type of catharsis, and an emotional experience in watching those eight episodes because I like rewarding the audience with that. I still think that means you can pepper in things that are like, ‘I wanna see where that's gonna go’ and, ‘Oh, I didn't realize that person was related to that person in this way, and I'd like to see more.’ But there isn't something where you feel like you're on the edge of your seat to have that catharsis, and then you have to wait two years. These things take forever to make, so I would hate to make a season that didn't feel complete, even if it was still open for more story.”
She added that, although she has “a lot of ideas, and again, a lot of it was stuff that I told Kathleen early on, in terms of where I would like the season to go, and the conflicts that I see happening, specifically in the second season,” she was ready to take a break after finishing the first season, but also see what the audience reaction would be before continuing.
“I'd like to see how the show performs. I'm very interested in that,” she explained. “I’m interested in seeing, like you said, the ratings and seeing what are the things that people...I don't wanna say it's in reaction to fan reaction, but you do get feedback at the end of the season, which is kind of nice, to just be like, ‘ok, those people hated that.’ It doesn't mean we don't do it, it just means we're armed with the information that that was an unpopular thing. So we can do it anyway, but knowing that stuff, I think, is really good.”
Oh, but there is something Headland was willing to tease about a second season: more familiar faces. Despite the time period of the show, there’s only one character from The High Republic books and comics to show up in the first season of The Acolyte — spoilers, it’s Vernestra Rwoh — but there’s a very specific reason for that, Headland said: “Part of that is because I wanted to save some people for Season 2.”
Okay, now are you excited for more Acolyte? Yeah, I thought so.
New episodes of The Acolyte stream weekly at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern every Tuesday on Disney+.
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