The Acolyte remains the most controversial Star Wars release outside of The Last Jedi and The Holiday Special, a hugely expensive series that became the center of a culture war, and was cancelled after its first season.
The show did have a number of issues, its bright spot was a quasi-Sith called The Stranger, posing as a man named Qimir. The Acolyte ended on a number of teasers, and as it turns out, there were big plans for Qimir in the scope of the Star Wars universe. Here’s director Leslye Headland in the new The Art of The Acolyte book:
“It was in the design of the character, as well as knowing that we were going to introduce Darth Plagueis, who has to end up with Palpatine as his apprentice. Following the Rule of Two – a precept that limited the Sith to just two at any given time, a master and an apprentice – one way to keep it going is if the Stranger is the first Knight of Ren, part of a Sith-adjacent cult that we know eventually survives.”
The idea was always that Qimir was not a normal Sith, nor would he be integrated into the Master/Apprentice system. Rather, he was going to be the founder of The Knights of Ren, a group introduced in the Disney Star Wars trilogy, of which Kylo Ren was the leader at one point. The Knights of Ren storyline was famously sliced into practically nothing in the final films, with Ren ultimately fighting and killing his former brothers.
This news about Qimir and the Knight of Ren joins another big Star Wars news story, where it’s gotten out through star Adam Driver and director Steven Soderbergh that they had a complete draft of a movie called The Hunt for Ben Solo, which would have resurrected the character for more adventures after the events of the trilogy. It likely would have been a good place to dive into his Knights of Ren past, as well.
Disney rejected that and cancelled The Acolyte before any of this manifested. Acolyte fans are mad that the show’s best character was supposed to have this foundational role we never got to see onscreen. Even more Star Wars fans are mad about the Ben Solo movie. Disney is not exactly on fire with its Star Wars era, which will continue with the Mandalorian and Grogu movie soon, and another season of Ahsoka amidst a bunch of Disney Plus one-offs, including The Acolyte. But that was never the plan. Qimir deserved better.
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