‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Pitch Was Apparently So Good, It Made Everyone Cry

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ is an upcoming TV show created for Disney+ and a part of a Star Wars franchise. The show has been discussed since 2019, the premiere of ‘The Rise of the Skywalker’ when Leslye Headland expressed interest in the franchise as a massive fan.

In April 2020, it was announced that Headland would be writing and show-running a new Star Wars series centered around female characters for Disney+. Staffing for the series had already commenced, and it was anticipated to explore a distinct era within the Star Wars universe separate from other projects.

Originally, Headland revealed that she pitched the show as “Frozen meets Kill Bill,” something with a variety of influences, and now producer Rayne Roberts revealed for SFX Magazine how exactly that pitch looked like. Shockingly, he revealed that everyone was so touched by the show, the whole room cried.

Leslye said it was Frozen meets Kill Bill in Star Wars. “It immediately communicated a kind of emotional entanglement and also high-octane action. It was like, ‘I think I understand what that is,’ and it started a conversation that led to me elevating her pitch, ultimately up to Kathy [Kennedy, Lucasfilm president]. Leslye is an amazing storyteller and when she finally pitched Kathy, everyone was crying. It was that kind of meeting.

Producer Simon Emanuel once again put emphasis on the action of the show, something that both the stars and the creator, Leslye Headland teased will be a massive part of the show. Both Dafne Keen and Amandla Stenberg bragged about training for weeks, perfecting moves and action sequences that would put some of the best fights in the franchise to shame. Emanuel only confirmed those rumors:

The thing I picked up on and got very excited about was Kill Bill. One of the things we talked about really early on was action, and I really believe that, in these kinds of shows, action has to be a character. It can’t just be, ‘Give me a punch, give me a lightsaber fight…’ So I introduced Leslye to a guy called Chris Clark Cowan, who was our action designer, and part of the team who worked on the Darth Vader sequence in Rogue One. Leslye and Chris completely fell in love, and action became such a component of this story. For me, it’s the best action the franchise has seen – and there’s so much of it.

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