The Acolyte’ show creator embraces the title ‘Gayest Star Wars,’ labels R2-D2 as a ‘Lesbian

“Star Wars: The Acolyte” showrunner Leslye Headland expressed her enthusiasm when an interviewer who called the new series “the gayest ‘Star Wars’” said she thinks it’s “canon” that the character R2-D2 is a lesbian.

Headland made the remarks during an interview with The Wrap. The 44-year-old filmmaker seemed surprised that infusing the show with LGBTQ themes would be a big deal. “Is it going to be a talking point?” she asked the interviewer.

“Acolyte” actress Amandla Stenberg chimed in, “Because nerds are gay.”

We are happy to report that #TheAcolyte is “arguably the gayest #StarWars” yet. 🌈 Happy Pride Month! 😉 pic.twitter.com/3oJSykc4Kq

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 4, 2024

TheWrap’s interviewer replied, “Well, some nerds are very not gay and are very threatened by gay stuff.”

“Well, that’s true. But in my world nerds are gay,” Stenberg said.

The interviewer asked if this was meant to be a “fun element,” and Headland replied, “No, I don’t think so, and yet people have told me it’s the gayest Star Wars, and I am frankly … into it.”

“I think Star Wars is so gay already. I mean, have you seen the ‘fits? We’d be like, ‘Look how gay this is,’ and send each other a reference photo,” Stenberg said.

Headland next shared her thoughts on the sexuality of fictional Star Wars robots. “And are you telling me with a straight face that C-3PO is straight?” she joked.

TheWrap interviewer agreed, saying, “They’re a couple. That’s what I think.”

“I think it’s canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian,” Headland replied.

This isn’t the first time the showrunner has brought up LGBTQ themes in Disney entertainment. Earlier this year, a video from the 2023 Star Wars Celebration captured Headland saying how “The Acolyte” would be “coded queer” like the animated children’s film, “Frozen.”

“When I saw Frozen as a grown a** woman, I cried through the entire movie,” she said at the time. “There was just something about the relationship between the sisters, the like devillainization of the classic kind of fairy tale ‘bad guy,’ you know, the concept of true love being between two sisters and not a heterosexual relationship. It just destroyed me, completely.”

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She continued, “And I thought, ‘Gosh, I would love to make something like this, for lack of a better term, Disney.’ Meaning something that like my parents would have allowed me to see when I was younger as a queer person, but I would have been able to understand as a queer person. And I think I would have had a completely different life. And so I really was inspired by it and was like, ‘God, I would love to make a story like this.’”

In 2021, Headland spoke to The Advocate about having representation on “The Acolyte” and fully intending “to allow her own personal experiences as a queer woman shine through in the finished product.”

“In the same way that the original ‘Star Wars’ film, ‘A New Hope,’ is about a young man living in Modesto, California, who doesn’t want to take over his dad’s hardware store,” Headland said. “There’s just no way that me being a queer woman is not going to be reflected in my work. I could try not to do it, but why would I? It just feels like a natural extension of what I do.”

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