We might not get to see The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise onscreen in live action anytime soon – as surely that was the plan for Leslye Headland as she embarked on a new era for the Sith, the Jedi and the galaxy in the debut season of The Acolyte – but the recently released The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte has revealed how she wanted Plagueis to be unveiled in the final episode of the first season, taking inspiration from an iconic character from Tolkein.
“Before we even designed anything, I knew I wanted to do what they did with Gollum in The Fellowship of the Ring, where you get a sense of this character, the size of the eyes and his coloring, but I didn’t want to do something in full-on daylight. When you see his hand move, with your point of view being the main characters, it feels like you know about the threat before the main characters do.”
The book also interviews ILM VFX supervisor Julian Foddy, who notes how vital the look of the character was to the moment.
“We looked at a lot of reference of Muun characters, from the prequels, The Clone Wars, and some game art. Leslye didn’t want to give too much away. We just want to see the flash of a character, the casual viewer might not even notice him or know it’s Darth Plagueis. So, it wasn’t so much about designing the character but designing the shots around that direction. Really, you just see a couple of long fingers and a little shaft of light hits his face. It’s just enough to tell us he isn’t human.”
