Showrunner Leslye Headland and lead actor Amandla Stenberg thought the twist in the first episode of the new Disney+ series The Acolyte would leak much sooner than it did.
In March, when The Acolyte’s official trailer debuted, it began with Lee Jung-jae’s Master Sol addressing a group of Jedi younglings by saying, “Close your eyes. Your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them.” That’s when yours truly theorized that Lee’s character was also offering meta advice to the audience about the Disney+ series’ overall narrative, and as we now know from yesterday’s two-episode premiere, The Acolyte’s marketing was absolutely conducting a long con by withholding the co-lead character of the entire show.
Instead of Stenberg just playing Mae, the vengeful assassin who’s targeting Jedi from her past, she also plays Mae’s twin, Osha, a space mechanic (or meknek in Star Wars terms), who’s wrongfully accused of committing Mae’s Jedi murders due to their shared likeness. The twin sisters were separated 16 years earlier for reasons that will soon come into focus, and needless to say, Stenberg and Headland are stunned that the character of Osha remained a secret to the majority of the audience.
“I totally thought it was going to leak earlier, like a lot earlier,” Stenberg tells The Hollywood Reporter.
However, Headland hints that the deception may not be over yet, as Master Sol’s words will have further significance throughout the rest of the season.
“I also think that line could apply to the rest of the season as well, not just the promotional materials, which, yeah, it did work,” Headland says.
When the trailer premiered, I wondered if Master Sol’s instruction to the younglings to not trust their eyes was also meta instruction for everyone watching the trailer, and it actually was. Are the two of you surprised that you were able to keep the cat in the bag for this long?
Amandla Stenberg: I was shocked!
Leslye Headland: I was surprised.
Stenberg: I totally thought it was going to leak earlier, like a lot earlier.
Headland: I also think that line could apply to the rest of the season as well, not just the promotional materials, which, yeah, it did work.
Stenberg: That’s also what you’re so good at as a storyteller. It’s challenging how people perceive things and challenging what they are, from a front-facing view and then delving deeper into what’s behind it and how complex individuals are. So that’s what that means to me.
Headland: Thank you.
Stenberg: Yeah! (Stenberg and Headland look at each other fondly.)
Read the interview in full here, and stream the first two episodes of The Acolyte on Disney+ now.
