Star Wars: The Acolyte is a mystery thriller says creator Leslye Headland in a recent interview as she also talks about her influences. The first trailer for The Acolyte does not give much a way and that’s by intention. As Headland explained to THR, this is supposed to be a mystery thriller.

“One thing to know about the show is that we’ve been talking about it as a mystery-thriller. It is a serialized story, so each episode gives you more information about the story,” Headland tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We were obviously influenced by samurai films and wuxia films, but also films like Rashomon, where you see one story and then you see it done a different way. So, what separates [Star Wars: The Acolyte] from some of the other Star Wars series is that it’s told in that particular way.”

For those unaware Rashomon had several characters recount the same event. Only in different ways according to how they wished to have themselves perceived. According to the outlet, Jung-jae and Stenberg’s characters have a history. Headland adds that both parties will offer their points of view on their shared conflict.

“What’s interesting is that you get both. The way I see Star Wars, the dynamics are either underdog versus institution or institutional threat, or it’s father-son, sibling-sibling, master-apprentice, father-daughter. It’s a familial dispute. So I would say that our show is more on the latter. It’s more about individualized relationships. You’re in the headspace of a lot of different characters. People who are good guys can be bad guys, and people who are bad guys can be good guys.”

RELATED: Disney+ Unveils Trailer For New “Star Wars: The Acolyte” Series

“There’s a lot of moral ambiguity, which is why Jodie’s [Turner-Smith] line in the trailer is so important: “This isn’t about good or bad; this is about power and who is allowed to use it.” And I believe, of course, that the Jedi are a benevolent, well-intentioned institution, but they are an institution and they have amassed all the power. So the question becomes when did that happen, and since we know where they’re headed in Phantom Menace, what went wrong? What are the cracks in that? So you definitely get the point of view of the Jedi, especially in terms of Amandla’s character and trying to stop her and hunt her down. But you also get enough of Amandla’s character’s perspective that you can also see how both of them exist simultaneously.”

Headland also explains her initial pitch to Kathleen Kennedy and how she ended up working on this show.

Frozen Meets Kill Bill

“The CliffsNotes version is that I love Star Wars. I absolutely adore it. And as soon as Russian Doll came out, I was like, “I’m calling Lucasfilm. That’s where I want to work. That’s what I want to do.” So I pitched them. My elevator pitch was Frozen meets Kill Bill, which I said at [Star Wars] Celebration, and I went through what I believed would be a rough season one outline and then an overall series bible, essentially.”

“Kathleen [Kennedy] bought it in the room and said, “I love it. I want to start working on it.” And we did. We did a lot of development on the scripts. We had a really great writers’ room. It took a while to get prep going because these are such huge projects, and we did a lot of our stuff practically in London. We didn’t use the Volume at all, so it was a lot of prepping for the show.”

Much as the Volume is useful, I much preferred the look of Andor which also opted not to use the tech. Sounds like a fun concept, let’s see if they pull it off.

So, Star Wars: The Acolyte is a mystery thriller says creator Leslye Headland as she also talks about her influences. What do you think of Headland’s comments about the show? Thoughts below as always.

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