THE ACOLYTE showrunner offers insights into surprising opener “You Have To Go Hard”

The first two episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte are now available to watch on Disney+, and it opens in a surprising way that seems to shock fans.

I didn’t expect things to turn out the way they did, so it was definitely a jarring start to a story that seemed to become less and less interesting because it wasn’t there.

If you haven’t seen the first episode yet, there are spoilers ahead! Showrunner Leslye Promontory recently offered some insight into the opening and why he made the decision he did.

The series begins with a duel between Master Indara (Carrie-Ann Moss) and the murderer Mae (Amanda Stenberg).

As you know, Moss was billed as the main character of the series in all the marketing for the series, but it turns out that’s not the case at all. The creative team kills her off in the first moments of the show.

This is a Jedi character whose skills wouldn’t have allowed her to be killed so easily, but, you know, that’s how the story was written.

Speaking about why they made the decision to kill off this character, Headland explained, “From a director’s perspective, I felt like with the cold open, especially with a new story, you just had to go hard.”

He added: “You have to say the Jedi are going to take some L’s; you won’t know who the good guys and the bad guys are. And it’s going to be very visceral.”

Headland continues: “Even if you already know it’s going to happen, it doesn’t have to be a big moment. It just has to be a moment where the emotional and the physical – i.e. the fighting – come together.

“Carrie-Anne, as well as being an action legend, is also a phenomenal actress. She was able to reproduce all those fight rhythms as well as, obviously, her death scene.”

I get it, I get what they were trying to do, but if they wanted to do it, they shouldn’t have built the character to be an unbeatable Jedi, when she was killed she just wasn’t like that. It’s not believable. Moss’ character would kick Mae’s ass and not let her take it out of her.

I’m just saying that if they want to kill off a Jedi character in the story, you have to set up the fact that he’s not the most competent Jedi and is someone who is beatable.

Manny Giacintowho plays Qimir in the series, continued, “Having Trinity in it Star Wars, really sets the tone for what audiences should expect. This won’t be the kind of Star Wars we’ve seen before. It will be more physical. You just set a completely different tone.

So far, after watching the first two episodes, I’m not convinced. What are your thoughts on the show’s opening sequence and the decision to kill off Moss’ character?

Source: GamesRadar