‘The Acolyte’ creator has heard nothing about getting a season 2

The Acolyte burned through both bodies and story at a blistering pace in season 1, killing an absurd number of Jedi and completely flipping the script for its main twin characters played by Amandla Stenberg. So what does creator Leslye Headland have in store for season 2? Well, first she needs to get a season 2.

When asked by Entertainment Weekly what she has heard in terms of a second season being greenlit, Headland uses both hands to make a big zero. “Nothing,” she says.

So does that mean the visionary behind the greatest action spectacular streaming series in Star Wars history is just sitting around waiting for word from Lucasfilm and Disney+? Basically — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, she says.

“You have to take a break,” Headland says. “Especially after something like this. I don’t even know how many years my brain has been going, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, Acolyte, Acolyte, Acolyte — just constantly solving problems, constantly thinking about it. It is very weird to now be in a place where I don’t need to do that. I always say to budding writers, ‘The most important thing that you can do is sit around and do nothing. Because the second you start to manufacture a story, you’re going to get stressed out, and the story can’t start that way.’”

While Headland may be enjoying a (hopefully only temporary) break from the unrelenting pace of production and the pressure that comes with it, she can’t help but form a future story in her head. “My brain is still doing it,” she says, laughing. “It’s almost like if you’re running, you can’t just stop, can’t shut off.”

And some of a future season 2 would involve seeing more of the Republic Senate, which was introduced in the finale courtesy of Jedi skeptic Senator Rayencourt (David Harewood) and Supreme Chancellor Drellik. “A generation or two generations have gone by since the Nihil,” says Headland of the antagonist group in the High Republic novels. “There was a lot of drama, so it was just logical to me that there would be more of this button-down [idea]: ‘We’re trying to avoid the mistake. Let’s limit the power. Let’s do that before someone asks us to.’ And it was just logical to me to show Vernestra as the bridge for that.”

And that is just the beginning of Headland’s future plans for Vernestra Rwoh (played by Headland’s wife, Rebecca Henderson) — the only main character from the High Republic novels who has appeared on the show so far. In the books, Vernestra is a headstrong youth, a very different personality from the older Acolyte version who has been through it and seen so much. The finale teased a tantalizing connection between Vernestra and the Stranger (Manny Jacinto), revealing that Qimir used to be her Jedi Padawan.

While season 1 showed the father and daughter dynamic between Lee Jung-jae’s Sol and Stenberg’s Osha, a second season would delve into the past mother and son relationship between Vernestra and Qimir. “I can’t confirm or deny that that is something we are thinking about,” Headland says, “but I think if we’re allowed to continue telling this story, you’ll see more of Vern’s history with the Stranger and how that’s affecting the decisions she’s making now.”

In fact, Headland’s only real regret about season 1 is that she was not able to work more of Vernestra’s backstory into its eight episodes. “That was something I kept trying to slip in, but there was so much,” Headland says with a sigh. “It’s a really packed season, and I love that. My goal is to explore as many nooks and crannies as I can in the time I am given, and Star Wars is the perfect place to do that because there’s nothing but good nooks and crannies — all of this world that’s available to you that you can dig into. So of course there were things that I didn’t get to explore.”

But there were bigger fish to fry, and bigger characters to incorporate, most notably the finale cameos of Darth Plagueis and Yoda, representing the higher echelons of dark and light power. “If I couldn’t do Plagueis or Yoda, I think that would’ve been a real heartbreak,” Headland says. “I think it sets up future storylines that could be really compelling.”

In the end, the finale wrapped up major storylines while planting the seeds for further intrigue. “We wanted to answer a lot of questions,” Headland says. “We wanted to show Qimir’s master. We weren’t going to wait a second season for that. We wanted to wrap up the twin storyline. We were not going to leave everybody hanging. They’ve sat through all of this, and we want to reward people for watching.”

And then there is the next phase, should the series be allowed to continue. “The dangling of other stuff, especially the legacy stuff like what’s Manny’s name, Yoda, Plagueis, and what the background is with Vernestra and her relationship with the Senate and how that’s going to unfold with this sort of internal review of the Jedi — where does that lead? So it was a lot of: How is this going to fit in to what we later see? That was the step I wanted to save for the tease, as well as Osha and the Stranger’s relationship. I felt like that was a really good thing to tease as well. Mostly, I need a full season for that.” (Especially after the characters briefly touched hands in their final scene.)

If this does end up being the end of The Acolyte, Headland is comforted by the fact the she went all-out from the show’s opening scene, which featured the first of many, many Jedi deaths to come. “We left it all on the field. I think we ate. It’s a real triumph for me to not just work in this world, but I’m a woman and I’m gay. That’s crazy! What timeline are we in that I get to do that?”

Headland continues, “It’s such a triumph for me that in the making of it, there was no part of me that was like, ‘I’m not going to fight for something. I’m going to get f—ing cortosis in there no matter what. I’m going to get Amandla in there doing her own action, which she had never done before — and she stepped the hell up in order to do that. I got to do a corruption arc. I got to do a female character who is choosing darkness and evil, which is, honestly, my brand. But then I got to do it in this world.”

She shakes her head in gleeful disbelief. “Give me a break!”

And the next break would be getting a season 2.

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