Amandla Stenberg and Leslye Headland Thought the ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Twist Would Leak Much Sooner

In March, when The Acolyte’s official trailer debuted, it began with Lee Jung-jae’s Master Sol addressing a group of Jedi younglings by saying, “Close your eyes. Your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them.” That’s when yours truly theorized that Lee’s character was also offering meta advice to the audience about the Disney+ series’ overall narrative, and as we now know from yesterday’s two-episode premiere, The Acolyte’s marketing was absolutely conducting a long con by withholding the co-lead character of the entire show.

Instead of Stenberg just playing Mae, the vengeful assassin who’s targeting Jedi from her past, she also plays Mae’s twin, Osha, a space mechanic (or meknek in Star Wars terms), who’s wrongfully accused of committing Mae’s Jedi murders due to their shared likeness. The twin sisters were separated 16 years earlier for reasons that will soon come into focus, and needless to say, Stenberg and Headland are stunned that the character of Osha remained a secret to the majority of the audience.