How ‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Made Sure the Series Was Star Wars to Its Core

June 3, 2025

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Tomorrow marks one year since The Acolyte premiered on Disney+, and the creator of the show is finally pulling back the curtain on her creative process of bringing this Star Wars story to life. The Acolyte comes from writer/showrunner Leslye Headland, who is also known for her work as a scribe on other projects such as Bachelorette, About Last Night, and Sleeping with Other People. The Acolyte was canceled after its first season on Disney+ shortly after the season finale, which came as a shock to some, considering the mostly positive critical reception and solid viewership. Headland and cinematographer Chris Teague recently sat down for an interview with GoldDerby to talk about The Acolyte ahead of its first anniversary, and Teague revealed the “guiding principle” that he and Headland used when making the show:

“[We adopted] what I like to call elegant simplicity: choosing the most direct, straightforward approach on the visual side of things, which does feel very George. Leslye would always say, ‘What would George do? What would George think?’ And that was our guiding principle…. [For instance, ] if we’re going to move the camera, it needs to mean something. It needs to underline some part of the narrative, or it needs to be connected to some aspect of the choreography, or something like that.”