Leslye Headland, showrunner on The Acolyte, has debunked fan theories about the “Unknown Planet” in the sixth episode of the show, now streaming on Disney+.
Spoiler warning: This article discusses story details from The Acolyte, Episode 6, “Teach/Corrupt.”
So I know that it is the “unknown planet,” but it was definitely giving Ahch-To vibes.
HEADLAND: It’s not Ahch-To. I know it’s similar, and it was intentionally supposed to be similar in terms of terrain and feeling isolated and surrounded by water and less lush green and more rocky. But the idea is that cortosis is mined on this planet, so I don’t think that’s the case with Ahch-To. Part of the reason this is his home base is that cortosis is a very rare metal. I don’t think we say it explicitly in the show, but that’s a reason it’s not Ahch-To.
Was it intentional to leave it as an unknown planet, because this is a planet that hasn’t been discovered by the Jedi?
HEADLAND: That’s exactly right. It’s an uncharted planet that they haven’t [mapped].
Obviously, porgs were such a big thing on Ahch-To, and it definitely sold a lot of toys, and then we have these adorable, what I can only assume are these naked mole-rat-style creatures? [Laughs] I will say, after seeing them, I went to my Star Wars Wildlife book, I went to my George Lucas Monsters book. I was trying to figure out if we had ever seen these creatures before.
HEADLAND: Those are new. Those are all Neal Scanlan, and we wanted, we just wanted to have like…
Flora and fauna is so important in fleshing out [the world].
HEADLAND: Yeah, it just gave it a little character. We definitely wanted them to feel totally unthreatening. You didn’t want to be like, “Those are rats!” You wanted them to kind of be cute rats, you know?
Yeah, the fact that the rats plays into what a certain fandom…
HEADLAND: Like my cute rat.
Reylos call themselves Rats, so they all have already co-opted that, and they’re like, ‘These are ours. We are these cute little rats.’ So, unintentionally, perfect.
HEADLAND: Bless you, bless you all bless you.
Read the full interview here, and stream the first six episodes of The Acolyte on Disney+ now.
