A STAR WARS MURDER MYSTERY FROM THE CREATOR OF RUSSIAN DOLL? SFX GOES BACK TO THE HIGH REPUBLIC ERA TO INVESTIGATE THE CASE OF THE ACOLYTE

WORDS: RICHARD EDWARDS

FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW. It’s a phrase that’s loomed large over Star Wars ever since Obi-Wan Kenobi tried to pretend he hadn’t fibbed about the fate of Luke

Skywalker’s dad. Since then, Anakin’s whined that, from his POV, the Jedi are evil, while fandom remains torn over The Last Jedi: is it a bona fide classic or a disastrous disturbance in the Force?

Now the latest Disney+ show is asking us to look at its story from multiple perspectives. The result? The next time a film studies student reminds you that George Lucas’s original Star Wars was heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, you can instantly shoot back that The Acolyte shares elements of the Japanese director’s multiple-POV classic Rashomon.

Set a century or so before The Phantom Menace – towards the end of the era known as the High Republic – The Acolyte sees a flourishing Jedi Order shaken when an unknown assassin starts bumping off its members. While it’s clearly bad news for lightsaber-wielders everywhere, it’s also a fantastic opportunity for creator/showrunner Leslye Headland – who made her name with tricksy Groundhog Day-tinged time-loop drama Russian Doll – to approach the story through multiple sets of eyes, and blur the lines between good and evil.

“Sometimes we are in the Jedi point of view,” producer Rayne Roberts tells SFX, “and sometimes we get to be in the point of view of the mysterious assailant. You might have thought something happened one way but it’s like, ‘Oh, wait a minute…’

“This was a fun idea that Leslye wanted to flesh out when we were developing the episodes. It really speaks to the way her brain works. I tell people she has this puzzle brain, and if you look at her storytelling in Russian Doll, there’s a puzzle that starts to unfold. Part of the way that puzzle unfolds in The Acolyte is through those Rashomon points of view.”

DESTINY CALLING

Destiny is another recurring theme in Star Wars, and it surely applies to Headland’s involvement in Star Wars. (SFX, sadly, was unable to pin her down in time for our deadline.) There’s no shortage of filmmakers who’ll tell you about the influence Star Wars had on their formative years, but Headland’s fandom goes the extra parsec.