The Acolyte creator names surprising Legends influence for new show

Creator and show-runner of The Acolyte, Leslye Headland, has spoken about how The Acolyte will be influenced by Star Wars: Legends, or non-canonical stories. Recently, it was revealed that a character from Knights of the Old Republic influenced Headland.

Knights of the Old Republic, aka KOTOR, was a popular video game series that told stories from events well before Episode 1 in the Skywalker saga. It introduced fans to new characters and new force concepts and was clearly influential on Headland.

One character in particular that Headland drew upon is Darth Traya, and this comes via a story by IGN. Also known as Kreia, this Jedi was banished from the Order as she tried to establish a new Jedi Order that was based upon dark side concepts. Eventually, she was consumed by the dark side and tried to establish a Sith Empire.

Headland did not elaborate on exactly how Kreia would influence The Acolyte, but it seems likely that Mae, Amandla Stenberg's character, is partly based upon Kreia. Mae appears to be someone who was exiled from the Jedi Order for either visions or dark side tendencies she may have had.

Given the fact that this new series has promised to explore the faults of the Jedi Order, it makes sense that Headland would draw upon an exiled Jedi as inspiration for one of the main characters.

It will be interesting to see what other Legends influences Headland will draw upon in this series. That is one of the cool parts of this series, it will have things that Legends fans love, things that High Republic fans will love, and things that fans of the prequels will love. There seems to be a little something for everyone.

We will have to see what other influences Headland draws upon, and we will find out a lot more when The Acolyte debuts on Disney+ on June 4.