The Acolyte creator says finale kiss between Qimir and Osha was 'definitely on the table'

It was the touch felt around the galaxy far, far away.

At the very end of The Acolyte season 1 finale, Qimir (a.k.a. the Stranger, played by Manny Jacinto) walked over to his new Sith apprentice Osha (Amandla Stenberg) to gaze out upon the ocean. But instead of just standing stoically by her side, Qimir moved his hand gently over to hers, which was holding a lightsaber. It was the briefest of touches, but sent full body shivers among Star Wars shippers who had been craving some form of physical contact ever since Osha watched the Stranger strip down to take a bath back in episode 6.

It turns out that touch was not originally in the script, and was implemented on the day of filming. “It was Manny and Amandla's idea,” creator Leslye Headland tells Entertainment Weekly. “We sat in a tent talking forever about what should happen, what they should do. We just knew that there needed to be a moment of intimacy that denoted mutual respect and the joining of an allegiance. There can be romantic overtones to that.”

It turns out they ended up shooting the scene both ways — with and without the touch — but Headland ultimately chose to include it. Not only that, but there was a discussion about Qimir and Osha doing a lot more than just touching. “A kiss was definitely on the table, I would say,” Headland reveals.

So why did the two Sith ultimately not lock lips? “I felt like it wasn't earned yet,” Headland says. “For one, I felt like they earned each other's respect, they earned each other's allegiance, but physical intimacy beyond a Jane Austen brush, it just felt wrong, and the cast agreed.”

In the end, the touch was the perfect compromise. “I think it alludes to something more romantic,” Jacinto tells EW. “But it also alludes to something I think a lot of Star Wars fans are yearning for. In this IP, you have the ships like Reylo, and you have all those relationships that people just innately want to see — these romantic relationships that people want to see in Star Wars.”

And teasing the possible connection — including the earlier moment when the Stranger attempts to touch Osha after she has killed Sol (Lee Jung-jae) only to have a lightsaber drawn on him — rather than solidifying it shows a work definitely still in progress.

“The physical intimacy is beautiful,” Headland says. “It's Pride and Prejudice. It's Jane Eyre. They're just figuring it out with each other. They're figuring out what that physical intimacy is. You don't want to force that stuff. You want it to feel intriguing and beautiful and something soft with characters that have always been portrayed as so hard. You want to show that this pupil-master relationship is going to develop into something a little more human.”

After Jacinto and Stenberg came up with the final moment, Headland received another unexpected surprise. “We shot it, and I was like, ‘It's the last shot of Fight Club! Holy f---!’” Headland laughs. “And that's filmmaking. Filmmaking is collaboration. For somebody like myself, it's being open-minded, and it's about allowing your team to unravel and figure something out. And then when you see it, you're like, 'This is what I've always dreamed of.'”

While The Acolyte has yet to be renewed for a second season, the hope is that there is more story to be told, especially considering we have yet to see a full Star Wars romance between two dark side characters on screen.

“The Sith code begins with 'Peace is a lie, there is only passion,'” Headland notes. "It seems really obvious to me that this would be an element of their relationship, and to see the beginnings of something like that — whether it's romantic or not,  I don't know, but you don't want to be like, 'Here's the whole package. kids!' You definitely want to show that this is a simmering thing as opposed to a full boil.”

It sounds like someone is ready to turn up the heat on season 2.