Report: Leslye Headland Wants Fans Out of ‘Star Wars’

As The Acolyte concludes after a controversial season finale, many of those involved in creating the Star Wars galaxy have learned two things: The fans have more power than they realize, and their voice shouldn’t be denied for the sake of a creator’s agenda.

If you are one of the few Star Wars supporters clinging to the hope that Disney will take notice of Lucasfilm’s shortcomings after The Acolyte’s disastrous reception. However, you’ll also be aware that showrunner Leslye Headland has lost more than the plot during her tenure in the galaxy far away.

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The new series has more than a few promising ideas and concepts, but a recent report shares that it was doomed from the start. What’s the point in creating a Star Wars television series if your writers’ room lacks fans of the actual franchise?

Headland Denies Fans in ‘Star Wars’ Creation

In case you’ve slept on this highly controversial series, The Acolyte is a Star Wars series set before the rise of the Galactic Empire, following a Jedi Knight’s investigation into a series of murders connected to his former Padawan. The show features a cast including Amandla Stenberg as twins Osha and Mae, Lee Jung-jae as Master Sol, Manny Jacinto as the mysterious Qimir, and Jodie Turner-Smith as Master Indara, exploring the Jedi Order’s darker side.

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If a TV producer wants to create a show about cowboys, sharks, or professional chefs from the Middle East teaching a course in underwater basket weaving, logic dictates that they will work with writers or creators with experience in those fields. As demonstrated by The Acolyte, Leslye Headland is a living example of what can happen when that logic is thrown out the escape hatch of an imploding spacecraft.

During an interview with Indie Wire, Headland openly admitted to purposefully omitting Star Wars fans during the creative process while working on the Acolyte. The Lucasfilm showrunner claims it was a major plus during the show’s creation.

Headland states,

“There were people like myself that were like later-in-life [Dave] Filoni acolytes. I literally had one writer that was like, ‘I have never seen any of them. I’ve never seen any “Star Wars” media.’ And she’s texting me before we started the room, she’s like, ‘Luke and Leia are brother and sister, what the…?’”

The creator later goes on to add,

“It was so great, because I would really love to know from someone who is not fully immersed in this fandom, what do you think about the pitch we just made?”

To recap, Headland knowingly and willingly created an entire Star Wars series that takes place in the High Republic Era, a setting that takes place a century before The Phantom Menace (1999)and was previously only explored in the Star Wars book series, without input from the fans. See anything wrong with this picture?

Furious Fans Force The Acolyte to Fall

A recent report from The Gamer states that having a group of creators unattached to the world they are expanding is actually beneficial, making the statement:

“Having someone who isn’t a fan in the writer’s room is such a simple but brilliant idea to keep these shows from getting caught up in themselves and feeding into that lifeless viewpoint that makes them completely impenetrable.”

While there might be some validity in fans “getting caught up in themselves,” the reception and response surrounding The Acolyte is undeniably awful. In just eight episodes, Headland and her team demonstrated that they have little more than the basic knowledge of how the franchise works, and they repeatedly denied or otherwise destroyed the core tenants of the galaxy far, far away.

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Not only is the take above a divisive statement, but it’s also profoundly wrong, as other series under the Star Wars banner prove. Headland might not be the experienced hand at the helm the franchise needs, but Lucasfilm at least has one dedicated fan in charge.

Since cutting his teeth on The Clone Wars, Dave Filoni has proven time and again that Star Wars fans grow up to be creative minds. How else would we have shows like The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Rebels, and Ahsoka?

Related: ‘Acolyte’ Insults Religious Audience After Season Finale

With increasingly rotten ratings and reviews, The Acolyte is a prime example of the phrase “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” By eliminating the core elements of Star Wars, like the battle between good and evil, insulting its primarily male demographic, and using a beloved franchise as a platform for personal messages and agendas, the series went down like the Death Star.

Will Disney and Lucasfilm learn from this disturbance in the Force? Tell us what you think in the comments below!