Manny Jacinto’s Qimir became the center of viewer attention after ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 5 revealed him as the mysterious Sith Lord ‘The Stranger.’ This led Leslye Headland to open more room for the character in the story, although she didn’t plan to do so at first. The showrunner shared in a new chat with Inverse:
“This is an interesting tidbit: Originally, even up until shooting, The Stranger was not in a lot of the rest of the season. He was much more of a tee-up for a second season arc. But I saw Manny’s screen test early on in pre-production and I just thought, ‘There will be riots in the streets if I don’t [go further]. Here we go, I guess, I’m rewriting an episode.’ Manny was so impressive, in every aspect.”
The Stranger was set on a mission to kill all the Jedi that found out about his existence in last week’s episode and already took down Dafne Keen’s Jecki and Charlie Barnett’s Yord.
Headland’s Plans For ‘The Acolyte’
The Sith Lord’s motives and history remained unclear in recent episodes. But Headland said more hints about his past would appear in the future. She told Entertainment Weekly:
“Because it’s Osha’s story, you don’t know much about the Stranger’s background and you’re not really going to learn much about it. But there are a bunch of things in Episode 6 and Episode 8 that are really big clues as to why he is the way he is and why his philosophy is the way that it is.”
The showrunner also spoke of a possible Season 2:
“I think there’s enough stuff in the last few episodes that you would want to have answered… I threw everything into season 1, because who knows what’s going to happen? And then I’d say there are four to five major mysteries and plot points that have to get hit in Season 2… It will probably be more that I know what needs to happen, and I know what the character development needs to be in order to hit the plot points and the character points for a second, third, or fourth season. So I look forward to working on that, but right now, I haven’t.”
‘The Acolyte’ has two more episodes to conclude Season 1. A second season is yet to be confirmed by Disney+.
