This game inspired The Acolyte, the upcoming Star Wars series all about the High Republic era

Star Wars has had its ups and downs ever since the franchise was acquired by Disney. Before then, there was a wide open universe of lore that spanned thousands of years before and after both movie trilogies, going far beyond the Skywalker family that originated it all. But the new direction that the series has gone with left behind almost all of these old stories, now dubbed “Legends”, with certain characters and ideas getting repurposed. Now, it’s been revealed that the showrunner behind The Acolyte got some heavy inspiration from one of these abandoned stories: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

In an interview with Den of Geek, series’ showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) delved into the lore and inspirations for the upcoming series, which go from ancient Legends Lore to recovered characters in the new canon. One of these inspirations is the main villain of the 2004 video game, KOTOR II: “Darth Traya really stuck out to me as an inspiration,” she said. Given that she’s known as the “Lord of Betrayal”, with one of the most interesting stories in all of the Extended Universe, this inspiration is excited.

Without entering too much into spoiler territory for those willing to experience the game fort themselves, Darth Traya was once a Jedi, betrayed by her students and the Order, who then became one of the most powerful Sith Lords of all. Then she was betrayed once more, and that is what led her to understand how The Force is actually a selfish entity that makes slaves of all its users to enforce its will. Before, we’ve seen Jedi explain The Force as a living thing that encapsulates everything, but Darth Traya found that life can thrive without the force, and left us thinking whether it’s actually a good thing or not. Light or Dark side, “what are [the Jedi] without the Force? Take the greatest Jedi Knight, strip away the Force, and what remains?”

A new style of Star Wars

The Acolyte will see the High Republic era of Star Wars finally come to live-action. Already a prolific setting for the franchise through novels, comics, and certain animated shows, this era is a time of relative peace hundreds of years before the prequel trilogy of movies. At the time, the Jedi Order is a massive organization that functions as peacekeepers around the entire galaxy, having already defeated the Sith in a war almost a thousand years before. In The Acolyte, we’ll see the first mysteries surrounding the return of the Sith, including the origin of how they managed to sneak their way into positions of power, a patient plan generations in the making.

“There were two reasons I wanted to set it in that particular time period and that far away from the prequels. One, I didn’t want to mess with any canon,” said Headland. “The other thing that I loved about this period was the lack of legacy characters. I was too nervous to take them on, but also, I feel like we’ve seen a lot of that. [The High Republic] felt like a sandbox that I could easily jump into.”

This upcoming show is quite possibly the darkest depiction of the universe and its legendary warriors we’ve ever seen. With inspiration from the Old Republic games, which showed off an active war between a Sith Empire and the Jedi of an ancient Republic, it’s almost a given that we’ll see powerful Sith threatening the peace that the Jedi have worked diligently to create.

The Acolyte premieres on June 4, exclusively through Disney+.