By George & Josh Bate
Abrams Books have published The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte, an official behind-the-scenes companion to accompany the acclaimed Disney+ series. Written by Kristin Baver, the book showcases the production art, character designs, and other breathtaking work that went into creating The Acolyte, but it also includes tons of fascinating tidbits about the series, including details of an alternate ending, an original title, links to Kylo Ren and Han Solo, all manner of easter eggs, and so much more.
Here is everything we learned from The Art of The Acolyte…..
In the book’s introduction, Leslye Headland reveals the surprising connection between Han Solo and The Acolyte. Read more about that here.
The original title of The Acolyte was The Lost Sister. This title would have more directly alluded to the twin sisters at the heart of the show – Mae and Osha.
Series creator Leslye Headland views the series as a success, despite its cancelation after one season. “When we set out to make The Acolyte, I hoped to create a new expression of Star Wars, inventing something to expand on the storytelling I have loved since I was a child,” Headland remarks in the book. “And since it premiered in 2024, the fans of the series have affirmed this: We succeeded.”
There’s been much speculation as to whether Manny Jacinto’s Qimir / The Stranger is actually a Sith lord. The beginning of the book appears to ameliorate this confusion by referring to him as “a secret Sith master.”
Mother Aniseya’s coven of witches originally lived in an opulent castle called Anisham Castle, a stark contrast to the Brendok fortress. According to the book, Anisham Castle leaned into the fairy-tale qualities of Naboo in The Phantom Menace, but, ultimately, the team opted for a more industrial and fortified complex.
Early concept art featured Mae in red “Sith Armor” that looks like a cross between Darth Revan‘s armor from Knights of the Old Republic and Dracula’s red armor from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The opening scene of The Acolyte, in which Mae kills Master Indara in a noodle bar, originally took place on Nar Shaada. This is the home planet of the Hutts. A small Hutt was also set to feature in Osha’s escape from imprisonment in the first episode.
Concept art of a Jedi X-Wing was commissioned for the series. Although Luke later flew an X-Wing, it was never customary for Jedi to fly X-Wings as, by the time of their inception, the Jedi were all but extinct.
The idea of Osha working as a Meknek came from an idea about R2 units either not being invented yet or weren’t prevalent yet, which made organic beings like Osha undertake risk jobs.
When creating Carrie-Anne Moss’ Master Indara, Leslye Headland thought of the character being “a mix of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kill Bill‘s O-Ren Ishii.”
The droid Pip has four worn stickers on his body, all of which pay homage to different elements of Star Wars history…
- One sticker is a bird’s eye view of the Ando Prime track from the 1999 video game Star Wars Episode I: Racer
- Another sticker is a Loth-cat, a nod to Star Wars Rebels
- Another sticker is a re-creation of the emblem on Luke’s helmet when he first trains with Obi-Wan in A New Hope
- And the final sticker is a shape intended to evoke the world of Batuu from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
It was Kathleen Kennedy who suggested that the Jedi Order’s robes be more colorful in the series. Headland recounted, “[Kennedy] said, ‘Every time I go into toy departments and see Jedi action figures, they’re always beige and off-white. They look kind of bland on the shelves.” Headland took this advice to heart and make the colors of the Jedi robes pop.
Lee Jung-jae studied Liam Neeson’s portrayal of Qui-Gon Jinn to prepare for the role of Sol. “I wanted him to have similar characteristics, philosophy, mindset, and heart,” Lee Jung-jae said.
The decision to make Vernestra Rwoh bald in the show was a nod to her wisdom, similar to the design of Tilda Swinton’s The Ancient One in Doctor Strange.
Yord Fandar was originally envisioned as a Duros, the same species as Cad Bane.
For the episodes “Day” and “Night,” a massive practical forest set was built, spanning more than 70,000 square feet and packed with more than 160 real trees, thousands of ferns, and other plants, which reached toward the 37 foot high soundstage ceilings.
Kelnacca the Wookiee Jedi was originally meant to have a shaved head, but the team thought it would “look quite odd considering his entire body is long hair.”
In pre-production, designers gave The Stranger the nickname “Frank,” a nod to the toothy rabbit in Donnie Darko.
The Art of The Acolyte reveals that The Stranger’s disturbing, smiling mask was designed to evoke Kylo Ren’s helmet from the sequel trilogy. Creature artist Nick Tyrell describes, “The slight frill at the back of the helmet – a design element that dates back to the franchise’s samurai influence and notably first seen in Vader’s design – hints at a link between the Stranger and the Star Wars sequel trilogy’s masked antagonist Kylo Ren, an idea storytellers took from the design.”
The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland elaborated that the link between Kylo Ren and The Stranger is more than just aesthetic. “It felt like it foreshadowed a possible connection to the Knights of Ren with the Kylo Ren shape we landed on,” Headland states. “We just started to go in that direction. It was in the design of the character, as well as knowing that we were going to introduce Darth Plagueis, who has to end up with Palpatine as his apprentice. Following the Rule of Two – a precept that limited the Sith to just two at any given time, a master and an apprentice – one way to keep it going is if the Stranger is the first knight of Ren, part of a Sith-adjacent culture that we know eventually survives.”
Dave Filoni advised Headland early on that, besides beskar, George Lucas had always been adamant that lightsaber efficacy be preserved. This led Headland to search in the depths of Legends / EU to discover cortosis.
Darth Plagueis was originally going to feature at the very end of the show. “I had always wanted the end of the season to introduce Plagueis,” Headland said. “Having him come in in the middle felt like it was going to be too loaded. So we decided to establish the era, the main characters, and the storyline, and then put Plagueis in as the larger threat.”
Plagueis’ design was inspired by the character’s established presence in publishing and other Muuns in live-action and animation. When she first saw the design of Plagueis, Headland started to cry, “This is exactly what I had in my head. You just made my dreams [a reality].”
Headland was inspired by Gollum’s introduction in The Fellowship of the Ring in conceptualizing Plagueis’ intoduction. “Before we even designed anything, I knew I wanted to do what they did with Gollum in The Fellowship of the Ring, where you get a sense of this character, the size of the eyes and his coloring, but I didn’t want to do something in full-on daylight. When you see his hand move, with yourr point of view being the main characters, it fells like you know about the threat before tha main characters do.”
One idea for The Stranger’s mask was inspired by Rorschach in Watchmen. “I’m a big fan of Watchmen,” Headland said. “The idea there was Rorschach. We liked the idea that when you looked at him, you would see yourself, because cult leaders like Jim Jones would wear those big glasses so that you could never seen him, you’d only be looking at yourself.”
Another design idea for The Stranger’s mask was having it be reminicent of the Bith species.
Mother Aniseya’s temple in the show was originally on the planet Dathomir. Dathomir is the Hell-ish landscape seen in The Clone Wars, which is the home to Darth Maul, Mother Talzin, Asajj Ventress, and the Nightsisters. Headland changed her mind, however, when Dave Filoni told her that not all witches in Star Wars are Nightsisters.
Ultimatey, the witches were inspired by the nuns of 1947’s Black Narcissus film, in addition to the Nightsisters of Dathomir.
The book reveals an alternate ending for the series, which would have taken place right before the Yoda epilogue. “There was a moment where I think you understood Vernestra’s choice to betray Sol,” Headland describes in the book. “As she was leaving [the Galactic Senate Building], she walked out and looked up as Senator Rayencourt said, ‘Welcome to the world of politics’. But as we were cutting things together, it did seem a little odd to end Vernestra’s story, but then come back to her talking to Yoda.”
The Senate Building was originally going to be depicted as being under construction and being remodeled in The Acolyte. This was to imply that the corruption from the prequels has begun. “It’s the beginning of the end,” artist Kevin Jenkins said.
The floor that Vernestra presents her story to the Senate tribunal in is red, because “she is lying in the blood of all the Jedi that were killed,” Jenkins said.
And last, but not least, concept art in the book reveals that Osha and Qimir were originally going to share a romantic kiss, with the picturesque island and wsurrounding water as a backdrop.
The Art of The Acolyte is available for purchase on February 3
