The creator and director of "The Acolyte," Leslye Headland, holds a profound love for binge-watching. In today's streaming galaxy, where content is readily accessible and vast, waiting for a handful of episodes is not just feasible, but often preferred by her. It's a matter of deciding if a show resonates with you, whether you're watching it with friends or a partner, and if so, are you sharing the experience synchronously or asynchronously? With three or four episodes at a time, making such decisions becomes a far simpler task compared to just a pilot episode, which often serves as a world-building exercise.
"The last show I truly enjoyed watching week by week was 'Breaking Bad,' and that was a decade ago," Headland revealed in an interview with IndieWire on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. "Or 'Lost' or 'The Sopranos.' But those were crafted by veterans who had mastered the old model, having risen through the ranks of traditional television production."
In contrast, there are fewer blueprints for crafting an outstanding eight-episode season of a TV show in our current streaming era, regardless of whether it's released weekly or in one fell swoop. TV writers are still grappling with the challenges of this format. With "The Acolyte," Headland and her creative team aimed to incorporate a "hairpin turn" into the season's structure, ensuring that just when a viewer thinks they've grasped the show's essence, the game changes.
"It was crucial to have Indara's [Carrie-Anne Moss] epic battle upfront [in Episode 1], leaving no doubt that the Jedis will face some losses," Headland explained. "Then, in Episode 5, it's almost like, 'You're worried about the Jedi being aware of these [Sith] existing? Well, they're all gone now.' This is a narrative trick often employed by filmmakers like Chan-wook Park and in J-Horror films, early Bong Joon-Ho works, and Takashi Miike's. They just say, 'We're making a different movie now.'"
Headland cited Bong's "The Host" as an exemplar, a film that establishes its genre and stakes, seamlessly shifts into comedy with ironclad control, seemingly transforming into a completely different narrative, and ultimately culminating in a gut-wrenching yet entirely justified ending. This is precisely the emotional journey Headland envisioned for her audience with the finale of "The Acolyte," an experience that gains in intensity over the course of a weekly release.
"My goal was that by the time you reach [Episode 8], you'd be thinking, 'I should be cheering for Sol [Lee Jung-jae], but I don't like him. I know I should be against The Stranger [Manny Jacinto], but I actually like him,'" Headland said. She aimed to visually translate this sense of the darksiders as scrappy underdogs into the show's action sequences, working closely with design/second unit director Christopher Clark Cowan. Using digital renderings of the sets, they injected emotional characterization and moments of emphasis, giving Sol a hint of arrogance and making Mae's (Amandla Stenberg) and eventually Osha's (Stenberg) rage feel more relatable.
"Chris would reveal Sol and Mae's epic duel in Episode 2, and I'd chime in, 'His head shouldn't dip below hers, ever. He should be dodging those knives with the finesse of Chow Yun Fat in 'Crouching Tiger.' Chris, a mastermind in his craft, having worked on the Vader scene in 'Rogue One' and 'Shang-Chi', would then incorporate my unique vision. Together, we'd craft moments that left me in awe," Headland recounted.
She went on to explain that there's nothing more intriguing or unnerving than a villain whose ideology resonates, but "The Acolyte" takes this concept a step further, applying it to each character, including Sol's questionable deeds wrapped in his love for Osha and Mae. His protective instinct towards the twins stemmed from Headland's personal experiences with a paternal figure, reminiscent of the bond between Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) and Anakin (Hayden Christiansen) in the prequels.
"My journey is strikingly similar to Osha's. I placed my trust in a fatherly figure and an institution. Yet, instead of realizing 'I don't belong here, I should chart my own path,' I felt a profound sense of failure. If I couldn't fulfill my father's expectations, I failed him, myself, and my Christian values. I struggled to make a living, to thrive in the capitalist world. I pursued an impossible dream: becoming an artist, a writer at the pinnacle of my craft, even making a 'Star Wars' series. But I did it," Headland confessed.
Indeed, she has created a "Star Wars" that seamlessly intertwines threads from the prequels, original trilogy, and extended universe, unlike any other live-action Disney+ series. The key to keeping viewers hooked week after week is marrying the high-octane elements with the emotional power dynamics we encounter in daily life.
"When you watch 'Star Wars,' you aspire to be a Jedi, or perhaps even a Sith. But what I love is portraying two young women at opposing ends of this spectrum, in scenarios that resonate with real-world emotions. That's where I begin my storytelling journey," Headland concluded.
