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Other Theelins have made appearances in Star Wars media since 1997. Corellian half-human/half-Theelin hybrid Shug Ninx made his debut in the Han Solo-focused novel The Hutt Gambit, bounty hunter Latts Razzi appeared in The Clone Wars, and Sith Lord Darth Phobos challenged players in the first The Force Unleashed video game. But outside of these and a few other scattered appearances, Theelins remain background dressing, most recently popping up in scenes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
According to Headland, when given the keys to her own Star Wars series, she leapt at the chance to bring Theelins to the forefront of The Acolyte in the form of a powerful Jedi. “Dafne’s character could definitely kick my ass,” said Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll), who also plays a Jedi character.
The inclusion of a Theelin is just one of the many ambitious ideas Headland pitched for the series. For example, she describes The Acolyte as “Kill Bill meets Frozen,” invoking a very unlikely film pairing. “It is sort of a joke,” Headland explained. “But it was my elevator pitch to Kathy [Kennedy]: ‘I want to take that revisionist version of female villains that you see in a fairy-tale media and tell it through that lens.” The showrunner also teased wuxia-inspired fight sequences on the show.
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To that end, Headland has assembled a stellar cast, including not only main characters played by Amandla Stenberg of The Hunger Games and Lee Jung-jae of Squid Game, but also After Yang‘s Jodie Turner-Smith and The Matrix‘s Carrie-Anne Moss. The series will also bring at least one character from The High Republic series, Vernestra Rwoh, to live-action, played by Rebecca Henderson (Russian Doll). And, of course, the series will also feature plenty of interesting background characters, giving future fans new things to obsess over.
Star Wars: The Acolyte is currently slated for a 2024 release on Disney+.
