Speaking to Inverse, Stenberg talked about what it was like portraying the Force-sensitive twins and workshopping their backstories in advance, which helped her greatly during the filming process. “Something that I feel like we don’t really talk about that much is when you’re filming something, you shoot out of sequence, so one of the most challenging things for me is always just ensuring that I am accurate within the emotional arc when we’re filming things out of order,” she explained.
The scope of their backstories ended up larger than expected, with Stenberg confessing, “I was going to just write up a quick backstory, and then I was like, ‘We have to get into this, girls. It’s the only way that I’m going to know who these people are.’ And Leslye [Headland] gave me so much creative freedom to imagine what their lives had been like up until the point that we meet them, so it did become like a 50-page extravaganza.”
“And Leslye [Headland] gave me so much creative freedom to imagine what their lives had been like up until the point that we meet them, so it did become like a 50-page extravaganza.”
In addition to extensively writing out her characters’ diverging paths since the events on Brendok, Stenberg devoted a lot of time to learning The Acolyte‘s fight choreography, even taking up Wing Chun to make her stunts more effective. While nothing has been confirmed yet regarding the Star Wars show’s future, she would love to have Season 2 “explore an Osha who is embodied and has changed this attitude that she has towards her own feelings or what she’s allowed to express. She could be a very powerful person being free of that mentality.”
By comparison, Stenberg described Mae’s choice to have her memories of Osha and her former Master Qimir erased as “a whole other can of worms,” revealing that she and Headland have “spoken about all kinds of fun stuff. Was Mae’s memory actually wiped? How did tidbits come back to her? What would it be like to play someone who is struggling with memory and someone who has been reverted back to a childlike state, really? There’s still a warrior in her somewhere.”
Mae and Osha Switched Places by the End of the Season
The Acolyte‘s finale concluded with Mae and Osha in opposite places from where they began this season, with the Jedi Order apprehending the former and the latter escaping alongside Qimir to begin her training as his acolyte. Mae’s story also teased a possible future alongside Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) in tracking down Qimir’s whereabouts, hinting at the Sith being her former apprentice. By comparison, the finale laid the groundwork to tie Osha’s story into established Star Wars characters from the Expanded Universe, revealing a first look at fan-favorite Sith Master Darth Plagueis on the island where Qimir resided.
Alongside The Acolyte, another High Republic-era Star Wars show, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, will release its second season in August. The franchise will also continue this year in the upcoming video game Star Wars Outlaws and live-action show Skeleton Crew.
The Acolyte is available to stream on Disney+.
