The Acolyte from Leslye Headland

[Snow Queen]

Leslye Headland, Emmy Award-nominated creator of the mind-bending series Russian Doll, brings a new Star Wars series to Disney+ with The Acolyte. The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.

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Spoiler

‘Star Wars’ Series From Leslye Headland in the Works at Disney Plus – Variety

A new “Star Wars” series is in the works at Disney Plus, Variety has learned from sources. The series hails from Leslye Headland, the co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed Netflix series “Russian Doll.”

Details of the exact plot of the series are being kept under wraps, but sources say it will be a female-centric series that takes place in a different part of the “Star Wars” timeline than other projects. Headland is said to be attached to write and serve as showrunner on the series, with the show currently staffing.

 

[Fincher]

Different part of the Star Wars timeline? The article I read made it sound like it was an actual different timeline, like alternate history. That wouldn't bother me, but I don't know about fans in general.

 

[Pennywise]

Female-Focused ‘Star Wars’ Series From ‘Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland In Works – Deadline

Deadline has confirmed the gist of the series. While the exact plot is under wraps, but the series is understood to be a female-driven action thriller with martial arts elements and set in an alternate timeline from the usual Star Wars universe. Disney declined comment on the project, which was first reported by Variety.

 

[Fincher]

Yeah, see, there's a big difference between "different part of the Star Wars timeline" and "alternate timeline". Someone got their wires crossed.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Meh

I hope it’s good. But when their selling point is “female centric” I am not expecting much

 

[CaptainWagner]

Meh

I hope it’s good. But when their selling point is “female centric” I am not expecting much

My biggest wish would be for a Crimson Dawn follow-up to Solo, with Clarke as Qui'Ra rising in the underworld, leading up to Maul's downfall. I do love the Aphra rumors, though, and Headland is a great hire, so I'm hyped for whatever.

 

[Snow Queen]

The Aphra rumours feel like wishful thinking to me.

 

[CaptainWagner]

The Aphra rumours feel like wishful thinking to me.

Weren't there already rumors about an Aphra project being in the works that pre-dated the announcement?

 

[Snow Queen]

Weren't there already rumors about an Aphra project being in the works that pre-dated the announcement?

Yeah, but I'll believe it when I see it on that one. It just seems out of character for them.

 

[Pennywise]

Star Wars: New Disney+ Showrunner Leslye Headland Teases How She Pitched Her Series

In a recent chat with Fantastic Frankey, the scribe dove in head-first into the development behind her Star Wars series, revealing how she brought the idea to life through research and the pitch process with Kathleen Kennedy and the other Lucasfilm executives.


"Every pitch starts here," Headland said holding up a copy of Wallace and Fry's Star Wars: The Essential Atlas. "It start with 'Where are we?' because I think that is always how I anchor myself within this particular world. You can't just always just start with 'I have a cool emotional idea,' or 'I have a cool concept I'd like to explore.'"


She added, "Those are all great and keep them up there, but it's an actual world with actual places. Where are you? Who's there? How much do we know about who's there and how much do we not know? Based on what we know about who's there, what can we infer from the political economic structure of that place and then, how does that dovetail into the story you want to tell?"


Headland explains since Star Wars already has an expansive world that's been established through nearly a dozen feature films and a handful of television properties, she aimed to explore it geographically first while developing the series.


"For me, it's less about going through the Star Wars universe cinematically or artistically, I'm actually kind of combing through it geographically and go on a literal journey," Headland explained. "When we were pitching, I had my designer create that Indiana Jones-like "we go here and then we go here," with the little dotted red line like this is our journey, this is where we're going."


Furthermore, Headland essentially confirmed the series would follow in the footsteps of The Mandalorian and its weekly release schedule, suggesting episodic releases not only help create fan engagement, but they also help with a different type of storytelling.


"When I first pitched to Lucasfilm, I didn't necessarily pitch as a television show or a feature film, I just kind of pitched character or story and all the things that are dear to my heart as a playwright. I'm just pitching on that level," Headland concluded. "Ultimately when I settled on television and specifically streaming, it felt right because I feel that there's a different type of storytelling when you come from TV, especially episodic TV, meaning not bingeable TV."

Star Wars: Russian Doll Creator Teases the Timeline and Canon of Her Disney+ Series

Star Wars fans have a lot of good content to look forward to in the years ahead, with new stories being told in films, on television, and in comics and novels. One of the most highly-anticipated projects among those is definitely Leslye Headland's Disney+ series, which was confirmed to be in the works earlier this year. The currently-untitled series is set to be a "martial-arts thriller"following a female protagonist within a point in time that has largely been unexplored in the Star Wars universe -- details that Headland recently shed light on in an interview with Fantastic Frankey.

"I would say it's in a pocket of the universe and a pocket of the timeline that we don't know much about," Headland revealed. "That's what I can say."

Headland also spoke about the notion of her show being 'female-centric', but argued that its unique approach to the canon will hopefully appeal to a larger swath of fans of the franchise.


"Just because my show is technically, yes, 'female-centric', meaning it centers around a female protagonist, I don't think that necessarily excludes men from that space," Headland explained. "I relate to male characters all the time. I root for Mando. I root for Luke... An inclusive space means an inclusive space. But at the same time, I think that just because something has a female protagonist doesn't necessarily mean it's only for women."


"I kind of see, if Star Wars is a religion... I like to think of my show as a tent revival," Headland continued. "You can come over if you want to. We're going to be talking about some cool stuff. There's going to be some things we haven't discussed in the canon yet. There are going to be some characters you don't know about. I would love you to join us. I would love you to be interested in it. If it's not your thing -- the cool thing about Star Wars right now is there's so much you can align yourself with and get invested in, but if you don't like it, that's fine."

 

[Snow Queen]

 

[Fincher]

Mystery thriller sounds interesting, and a female Sith is cool. This is probably the most exciting of the announced shows to me, although to be fair to Rangers of the New Republic I'm not sure what that's supposed to be.

 

[Bim]

Consider me intrigued! This could be very cool

 

[Iceman]

Mystery thriller sounds interesting, and a female Sith is cool. This is probably the most exciting of the announced shows to me, although to be fair to Rangers of the New Republic I'm not sure what that's supposed to be.

I came here to say pretty much all this.

 

[Perfect Cell]

The thriller aspect of it is a big hook for me. I don't know anything about the Sith of the High Republic era, but adding a real layer of tension and suspense to their usual shenanigans is a good recipe in my book.

 

[Sithborg]

I'm glad the High Republic is getting a series. I'm really looking for the High Republic materials to start to come out. Some of the designs shown already are really cool.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

I haven’t been keeping up with the High Republic at all. Just know that it’s a new series of books and comics too I think and it takes place thousands of years before the events of the OT

Is this something meant to replace Knights of the Old Republic? Would suck to lose so many great characters from KOTOR if that’s the case

 

[CaptainWagner]

I saw the title and got super-excited thinking it really was a Qui'Ra/Maul series.

I'm a little bummed it isn't, but I am excited to be getting at least one show outside of the OT-ST timeframe. Can't wait to see the High Republic on the screen.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I haven’t been keeping up with the High Republic at all. Just know that it’s a new series of books and comics too I think and it takes place thousands of years before the events of the OT

Is this something meant to replace Knights of the Old Republic? Would suck to lose so many great characters from KOTOR if that’s the case

High Republic is like, 200-300 years before TPM, so it’s not really a replacement for the Old Republic.

In fact, from what they’ve said about this era, the Sith, the Mandalorian wars and all of that should well be over.

 

[Broseph44]

I haven’t been keeping up with the High Republic at all. Just know that it’s a new series of books and comics too I think and it takes place thousands of years before the events of the OT

Is this something meant to replace Knights of the Old Republic? Would suck to lose so many great characters from KOTOR if that’s the case

No, it is not something meant to replace the Old Republic. The High Republic is set 200 years before the events of the Skywalker saga and 800 years after the fall of the "Old Republic".

 

[metaphysician]

I remain dubious of the entire "High Republic"* concept, but being done first as part of the Disney+ medley? Gives a tad bit of hope. And a spy story is a valid concept within Star Wars.

*It feels like something someone would invent because they want to steal from the KOTOR time period of the EU, but don't have the courage to actually do so because its too distant from the "main" story. Thus, steal stylistic and probably story elements from that, and then put them in an entirely different time period, that is close enough to the present to play "prequel of the prequels" games. It smells of half-measures.

 

[Sithborg]

I remain dubious of the entire "High Republic"* concept, but being done first as part of the Disney+ medley? Gives a tad bit of hope. And a spy story is a valid concept within Star Wars.

*It feels like something someone would invent because they want to steal from the KOTOR time period of the EU, but don't have the courage to actually do so because its too distant from the "main" story. Thus, steal stylistic and probably story elements from that, and then put them in an entirely different time period, that is close enough to the present to play "prequel of the prequels" games. It smells of half-measures.

Its not starting with this series, though. Think of the High Republic as like the Shadow of the Empire or The Force Unleash media blitz that happened in the past. The High Republic starts off next month.



And the designs, from what I'm seeing, are really awesome. Really fancier than what we saw in the PT.

Star Wars: The High Republic - StarWars.com

Probably not doing KOTOR due to its continuing popularity.

 

[Iceman]

I saw the title and got super-excited thinking it really was a Qui'Ra/Maul series.

I'm a little bummed it isn't, but I am excited to be getting at least one show outside of the OT-ST timeframe. Can't wait to see the High Republic on the screen.

I reckon Maul is inevitable in the shows at some point, as long as they are successful.

 

[Fincher]

I do think young Solo and Qi'ra are more viable with the shift toward television than they would've been for another film. They could easily show up on the Lando series.

 

[henzINNIT]

I am numb to Disney Star Wars and most of their proposed projects, but this one sounds like it might actually be interesting. Curious about this one.