The Acolyte director Hanelle Culpepper recently addressed the first season finale's surprising connection to The Last Jedi.
Since the episode aired, fans online have drawn comparisons between Qimir and Osha and Rey and Kylo Ren in the sequel trilogy as they noticed that The Acolyte characters are seemingly going on a similar path as the "Reylo" pair.
Throughout the first season, we've seen that the series has taken inspiration from The Last Jedi as they also tackled similar themes and subverted expectations of its storytelling that would receive polarizing responses from fans.
The Acolyte Director on The Last Jedi Connection
In an interview, Culpepper weighed in on The Acolyte season 1 finale's connection to The Last Jedi and shared that he watched the film in preparation for directing the episode.
However, she pointed out that the connections were all part of showrunner Leslye Headland's idea of how she wanted to shape the finale.
"I think it’s certainly, again, something that I rewatched, but I feel like a lot of it is... you’d have to ask [Leslye], because so much of it came from what she had written on the page that I was just trying to execute in the best possible way physically and emotionally," she said.
"There are parallels with stories between father and child, and between two people who are connected by the Force. I didn’t purposely set out to copy that in any way, it was just more… when you’re exploring that universe, again, the decisions come down to what best supports what’s happening emotionally and for the character and the story at that time."
As we're waiting for news on the renewal for the potential second season, the turning point for Osha and Qimir's relationship in the finale has become a major discussion for many fans as they speculate on what could happen to them moving forward.
One thing we know is that their relationship would get doomed at some point and it will pave the way to the eventual rise of the Sith as we've seen in the prequel trilogy.
What do you think of Culpepper's comments? Let us know in the comments!
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