Recently came an excerpt from a coffee table book about the making of the “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte”.
In the book, series creator, director, executive producer and showrunner Lesley Headland revealed that the original plans for Qimir/The Stranger (Manny Jacinto) saw him forming the earliest incarnation of the Knights of Ren first introduced in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.
As such, he was not a Sith per se – the only real Sith we saw in the series was a brief glimpse of Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord we know eventually served as Emperor Palpatine’s Master.
TV Insider recently caught up with Jacinto and asked for his take on Headland’s remarks about her plans for his Qimir character. He said:
“I did run into an article about, and I think Leslye cleared things up a little bit. That a possible path was that Qimir was one of the first Knights of Ren, so that was a possibility to explore. I think there would’ve been maybe more of a Master-Padawan relationship with [Qimir and Vernestra Rwoh in Season 2], but who knows? I don’t know if we’ll ever see it.”
For Jacinto, he says he’s very open to a return to the role if Lucasfilm asks:
“I am always ready, and I would love to run it back if they’d have me. That was a role of a lifetime, and I’m incredibly proud of what we did in The Acolyte and with Oshamir, with that whole relationship.
I feel like with a lot of the franchises that we currently have, it’s missing the romance. It’s missing a lot of love and relationships. We have the big fight scenes and the origin stories of these heroes and whatnot, but they don’t really have a relationship with other people. It’s such a weird thing.
And that’s why I loved the Qimir and Osha relationship, because we were taking it back to having a relationship in this big world. I think we just need more of that. I think that’s what made the characters and the story more compelling as opposed to just having big fight sequences, which I loved.”
While a second season of “The Acolyte” ain’t happening, it doesn’t mean the end for either the High Republic Era or potentially his character in some way.
“The Acolyte” is now streaming on the Disney+ service.
