THE ACOLYTE showrunner offers a look at Darth Plagueis and how he fits into the series’ future

The Acolyte artistic director Leslye Promontory returns to talk about Darth Plagueis, who appeared briefly in the series’ season finale, and previews his role in the future of the series.

It wasn’t all that surprising to see Darth Plagueis, as it had previously been teased that he would be arriving. Plagueis is the Sith Lord who eventually ends up training Palpatine, and in the series he is shown in the shadows, watching The Stranger and Osha from afar.

I imagine he wants to get his hands on Osha to finally figure out how to create life, which is one of the things he’s obsessed with. Speaking to IndieWire, Headland said, “Plagueis was always in the ending, in every version.

“There was a version where it was the end button [instead of Yoda]. You want to feel Osha’s triumph. You want to feel her joining forces with The Stranger. Plagueis trampled [that moment].”

He added: “I was fine with the cameo coming so early if it meant I could wrap up these characters so that their final blow wasn’t a feeling of, ‘And he’s been pulling the strings the whole time.'”

As for Plagueis’ future in the series’ future, his presence is not a good thing for Qimir and Osha. Headland said:

“Despite [Osha and The Stranger] They’re standing there, watching the sunset, ready to take over the world, and the tragedy is we know they won’t. We know there can only be two.”

“We know that Plagueis is there. We know that these two are doomed in some way. So for me it’s a bittersweet tragedy, this disturbing ending. But that’s because I know about the Sith lineage and all this other stuff, whereas I think a different subset of the audience might be like, ‘They’re married!'”

The showrunner went on to talk about designing the live-action version of Plagueis and where things stand with the Sith. She said: Obviously the species was determined, if not by [Star Wars] canon, so from Legends and certainly according to the original canon for everyone.

“So when we were designing it and talking about what it would look like, there was a lot to say. Crimson Peakby Guillermo del Toro.”

He continued to talk about the Sith in this era of Star Wars universe, saying, “They’re not running the First Order. They’re not running the Empire. I’m not the Chancellor of the Senate. They’re in hiding. The Sith [in this time] they are struggling to survive.”

It’s been speculated over the years that Plagueis actually created Anakin Skywalker, and I imagine that might be something he learns to do in this series, if that’s the direction things are going.