Leslye Headland, the showrunner for The Acolyte, recently said that a villain from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords was one of the show’s inspirations. Based on the confirmed story details about The Acolyte, the show will be one of the darkest Star Wars stories in a very long time. While the upcoming Star Wars show is a departure from recent installments in the franchise, it’s darker tone isn’t entirely out of the ordinary for earlier Star Wars stories. In fact, The Acolyte now seems to be directly drawing from one of the franchise’s darkest tales.
In an interview with Den of Geek, Headland mentioned that Knights of the Old Republic II stood out to her, and more specifically the character of Darth Traya.
“Darth Traya really stuck out to me as an inspiration.”
Headland has gone on record in the past to say that Star Wars Legends has been a big influence on The Acolyte, but this is her first mention of the Knights of the Old Republic games. In fact, Headland has rarely cited specific Legends stories or characters before, preferring to hint only at general concepts, like the idea of a Sith acolyte. Her mention of Darth Traya breaks that trend, however, and it also provides quite a bit of insight into some of the themes of the show and some possible directions The Acolyte could take.
Who Is Darth Traya, & How Will She Influence The Acolyte?
Knights of the Old Republic II featured three main antagonists who were all remnants of the Sith Empire: Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, and Darth Traya. Prior to the events of the game, Traya was a Jedi Master known as Kreia, but she was exiled from the Order after her former Padawan Revan, the villain of the original Knights of the Old Republic, became a Sith Lord. As a Sith Lord herself, Traya was considered the Lord of Betrayal and one of the greatest manipulators in the entire galaxy, and she used those skills to play both the Jedi and the Sith for her true goals.
One of the most interesting aspects of Darth Traya was her attitudes surrounding the Force. Unlike most other characters in Star Wars, Traya hated the Force. Traya believed that the Force was a kind of cruel master that forced both the Jedi and Sith into constant warfare and fighting in service of the never-ending cycle of balance. She believed that one side would gain an advantage, only for the other side to rise up and start the fighting all over again. That caused her to abandon both the Jedi and Sith in favor of a quest to destroy the Force itself, and free the galaxy from its influence.
Darth Traya’s story and motivations fit extremely well with what is currently known about The Acolyte, and it makes sense that Headland found her interesting. Headland herself, as well as characters like Mother Aniseya, have outright stated that The Acolyte poses the questions of who gets to wield power and whether they should. Amandla Stenberg’s Mae, the character at the center of the show’s mystery, has also been described as being somewhere outside the binary system of either Jedi or Sith. Depending on how much The Acolyte takes from Darth Traya, the show could not only threaten the Jedi, but the Force itself.
