Leslye Headland Wants To Explore Kreia's Tale - Star Wars News Net (2024)

The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland is interested in bringing the Old Republic era into live-action based on the story of the cynical and mysterious mentor figure, Kreia, from Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

This article contains spoilers for both Knights of the Old Republic games, so read at your own risk if you don’t want to be spoiled for a series that’s over 20 years old and a remake that may not arrive for another few years.

In a new interview with Omelete (hat tip IGN for the translation), Leslye Headland explained that, if given the opportunity to work with any Star Wars character in any era, the character that she is most interested in exploring is Kreia of the Old Republic era. In her words:

“I’ve always wanted to explore a live-action version of the Knights of the Old Republic game and Kreia’s character. I think it would be a really interesting story to bring to life.”

Kreia is a particularly unique character in the context of Western RPGs, often deconstructing whatever morality-based scenarios players are brought into that are typical for the genre. During the game, one of the first character alignment-based choices is whether to help a beggar on Nar Shaddaa or threaten him in what initially appears to be a typical Light Side/Dark Side decision.

However you proceed, it is not a cut-and-dry situation and it does not end well for anyone – either the beggar gets some of your money, learns nothing, and gets mugged by other beggars after flaunting his new riches, or he runs off, learns nothing, and mugs another beggar for what little currency they have. Kreia chastises the player if they choose to try to help the beggar with no strings attached, and her worldview — that it is more important to help others learn how to help themselves instead of simply offering them help out of altruism — ends up being validated by the scenario and others on the planet.

Her perspective comes as a result of a very unique perspective on the Force, believing that it is not to be used as a crutch and that conflict builds character. More importantly, (Spoiler Alert!) she’s also revealed to be Darth Traya, the third and final of the three titular Sith Lords (the other two Sith Lords are both former apprentices of hers) that you have to stop in that game on the dead world of Malachor, as her plan involves a plot to try to destroy the Force itself out of the belief that it causes all the wars in the galaxy and that it stifles individual growth. Kreia certainly stands out as a character in Star Wars for her refusal to adhere to either side of the Force, while her actions makes her a serious potential threat to all that lives.

In canon, Star Wars Rebels visited Malachor and features a location that looks quite similar to one you see at the end of the game, with a Sith Holocron featuring a Sith Lady speaking to series protagonist Ezra Bridger – although it was clarified that the Sith was a different person and was not a canonized version of Darth Traya. You can compare the above screenshot of the inner sanctum of Malachor to similar-looking ruins seen in the Rebels screenshot below:

Despite no projects being announced as being in active development for the Old Republic era (aside from a remake of the Legends game, which is not necessarily expected to be canonical to Lucasfilm’s Star Wars canon established since 2014), Lucasfilm has confirmed that they have multimedia projects planned for that era at some point. Lucasfilm previously tempered expectations of Old Republic stories as long as The Old Republic developer BioWare had stories left to tell, but since BioWare has outsourced development on the game to new developer Broadsword Online Games, it appears that Lucasfilm is more open to the prospect of telling canonical stories in this era.

Interestingly, modern literary materials have canonized the protagonists of both KOTOR games – Revan, the Sith Lord who is the true identity of the amnesiac male player character from the first game, who then make their decision on their choice of alignment, and Meetra Surik, the female player character of the second game also known as the Jedi Exile, a former follower of Revan and a present follower of Kreia who can either help heal a galaxy torn apart by the end of a devastating civil war, or to seek revenge on the Jedi who wronged her. While these are confirmed to exist at some point in canon, the details around their Legends backstory are not yet.

As it stands, Leslye Headland is keeping busy with her duties showrunningThe Acolyte, which airs on Tuesday nights on Disney Plus. You can read our review of the first four episodes of the series here.