The shocking Star Wars: The Acolyte Episode 5, Night, featured a major Jedi massacre after Qimir (Manny Jacinto) was finally revealed as the Stranger, the mysterious master who trained Mae (Amandla Stenberg) to be an assassin. Sadly, this killing spree included the beloved Jedi Knight Yord (Charlie Barnett) and Sol’s (Lee Jung-jae) Padawan Jecki (Dafne Keen). But though these two had met their demise early on the show, showrunner Leslye Headland teases their return, though probably in a comic.
During a press roundtable, Jedi News (via ComicBook) asked Headland if Yord and Jecki had more to their backstories and if they would return in another format after their deaths in The Acolyte. The series creator gladly said yes, revealing she had talked to Lucasfilm executive and author Pablo Hidalgo about it.
“Since wrapping up the season, there's definitely some stuff that I would love to see come to fruition,” she said. “Obviously, Vernestra already exists in publishing, so also going to do something there.”
Headland added that these two characters had a lot of background on them, made “by the actors in the writers' room.” As Ford was part of a campaign that she had played before, she revealed that he had a “pretty large backstory to him.” However, her plan was really to kill him and Jecki in Episode 5.
“So, it was kind of fun to think about them a lot and then think, ‘Well, because we didn't spend a lot of time with them, maybe there's a way we could keep playing around with them somehow,’” she continued.
Charlie Barnett and Dafne Keen Talk About Their Characters’ Deaths in Star Wars: The Acolyte
Yord and Jecki met their deaths at the hands of Qimir / the Stranger in The Acolyte Episode 5. While going on a one-on-one lightsaber battle against Qimir, the latter unsheathed his second blade and stabbed Jecki thrice, resulting in her death. But Jecki died of a noble cause, finally unmasking Mae’s master when she knocked his helmet off. However, Jecki didn’t mind dying early in the show and even made fun of it with Barnett.
“Me and Charlie were joking about that all the time,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “Whenever we were on set, and anyone would be complaining me and Charlie would be like, ‘Peace out, we're dying in two weeks!’”
The Logan star even revealed that she had fun doing her death scene and felt honored to be the one who took off Qimir’s helmet. She even found it very exciting. Alternatively, when Osha asked Yord to return to the battlefield, Qimir quickly pulled him and surprisingly snapped his neck. Though he admitted that no one wanted to cut out of a show, he found it a joy to play a character he knew would soon die.
“If it's a surprise to you and your job is gone next week, it sucks. But when you know what you're walking into, you get to have a little more control over it,” he explained. “And I tried to find the lemonade through the lemons.”
The Acolyte once again surprised fans with the unexpected deaths of Yord and Jecki. As this broke fans' hearts, seeing them return would surely be a delight.
The Acolyte Episodes 1 to 7 are available on Disney+, and the final Episode 8 is set to release on Tuesday, July 16.
