Oh, and about those big deaths…
Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutStar Wars: The Acolyteepisode 5.
Grab your creepiest grinning helmet and read on.
Charlie Barnett and Amandla Stenberg on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
Tell me about deciding to part with both Jecki and Yord.
We hid it so well that you didn’t see this!
It’s not like the audience didn’t know going in that that was what was up.
Manny Jacinto on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
But when Luke loses, he loses in such a devastating way not just physically, but psychologically.
So how did that play into your reveal of Qimir as the Stranger?
What are we going to see?
Manny Jacinto on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
There’s something that you’re like, Whoa, what’s this about?
But you need a villain that you kind of agree with in some ways.
Not his actions, obviously, but when Sol says What do you want?
Lee Jung-jae on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
and he says Freedom that is something that you’re free to’t argue with.
What can you say about himtaking out all these Jedi?
He says, They see my face, they all have to die.
Lee Jung-jae, Amandla Stenberg, and Leslye Headland of ‘The Acolyte’ at Star Wars Celebration 2023 EW Portraits.Rachell Smith
He’s not like, I murdered them, that was fun!
Hes like, I murdered them for preservation.
They threaten my existence and therefore I have to kill them.
So, in a way, not that you agree with him necessarily, but you also understand.
You have to survive.
And the Jedi cannot know he exists.
They must die as far as he’s concerned.
So it felt like it had to happen.
The people that have seen it are like, How could you do that?
And I was like, There was no other way around it.
To me it came down to panic.
Is there anybody that is going to escape this unscathed when this guy is around?
Cortosis is something also that exists in the EU, and something that I talked withDave Filoniabout.
It’s one of the most iconic, most powerful weapons known to man.
It should be unstable.
It shouldn’t feel like something that can last forever.
Right before he killed Yord, his gauntlet gets blown off.
It’s not Mandalorian steel that comes from a particular planet that can be melted down.
It’s a limited resource.
Why didn’t they use that later on?
How did you come up with the look of the Stranger?
Thats the Cortosis and how he uses them, but he doesn’t have any armor.
And my costume designer was like, Well, why?
And I said, Why would you wear armor if you don’t plan on getting hit?
He has that level of confidence of just like, No one’s going to land anything on me.
The Stranger has that final line, What extraordinary beings we are.
Even in the revelation of our triumph, we see the depth of our despair.
What is the meaning of that line as he’s putting that cape over Osha?
There is no good without bad.
There is no light without dark.
How much of that is due to events that happened 16 years ago involving Mae and Osha?
The Stranger says, I’ve accepted my darkness.
What have you done with yours?
How did you construct the basic outline of this episode?
There is so much going on.
That was the only time I was like, I feel like this is too far.
I really want the audience to be able to mourn Jecki.
And then finally I was like, You know what?
F— it.
Let’s just have him ask, What was its name?
And that came from Obi-Wan asking Qui-Gon about Darth Maul, What was it?
We always like to humanize our aliens, but other beings might be like, Was that its name?
But yeah, we were hoping this had a Duel of the Fates bang out of feeling to it.
She just yelled KILL HIM!
with glee in her voice.
[Laughs]
I love Manny’s look, too, when he does that.
He’s so ready to die.
He’s like, F— it, man.
I’m ready to die.
Let’s do this.
The options are I have to kill everybody here or I get killed.
And why was Manny the perfect person to play the Stranger?
They’re not afraid to play a bad guy.
They’re not afraid to be a villain.
He was so sweet that I was like, Oh, you’re going to be perfect.
I’ll tell you my philosophy on first seasons.
So its a little bit of both.
Where are you now in terms of season 2?
Have you written outlines?
Are you just sort of playing the waiting game?
It was much more, Here’s everything we got.
We’re throwing everything at the wall.
So I took that approach with this.
I threw everything into season 1, because who knows what’s going to happen?
So I look forward to working on that, but right now, I haven’t.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
