Posted in: Disney+, Star Wars, TV | Tagged: lucasfilm, Manny Jacinto, Qimir, star wars, Star Wars: The Acolyte, The Acolyte, the stranger

The Acolyte: Manny Jacinto Offers Insights Into THAT Shocking Reveal

Manny Jacinto discusses the shocking reveal in the latest episode of Disney+ and Lucasfilm's Star Wars prequel series The Acolyte.

When we're first introduced to Manny Jacinto's Qimir in the Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte, we discover he's working with Jedi assassin Mae (Amandla Stenberg) producing the poison that she requested to use against Jedi Master Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman). After Mae couldn't penetrate his Force wall, she came back later to use the poison, reminding him of his guilt, which he volunteers to ingest. On the way to her next target, the Wookie Jedi Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), Qimir tags along, not knowing the Jedi on their tail. Jacinto spoke to Entertainment Weekly on the events that followed in the episode "Night." The following contains major spoilers.

Manny Jacinto on Unraveling Qimir in 'The Acolyte'

When Mae finds Kelnacca at his home in Khofar in "Day," she discovers him slumped over, killed by a lightsaber slash across his chest. As the Jedi close in on her, Mae's twin, Osha (Stenberg), traveling with the Jedi, is approached by The Stranger in a mask resembling one worn by the Knights of Ren in the Star Wars Skywalker Saga sequel trilogy. He deftly Force pushes away everyone. At the start of "Night," we see the Jedi massacre start as The Stranger makes relatively short work of the party. Jedi Padawan Jecki (Dafne Keen) attempts to arrest Mae and get into a scuffle, and Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) tasks Jedi Knight Yord (Charlie Barnett) to escape with Osha while Sol tries to fight The Stranger off.

As the fight progresses, Jecki manages to knock The Stranger's helmet off, revealing himself to be Qimir, who reveals his origins as a Sith and uses his normal voice instead of the one he uses as the unassuming apothecary shop keep before killing Jecki and Yord in the process. When it came to Qimir's reveal, "This was the first time I really got to dig into something with so much action and really make use of my dance background. And I was just like, 'Let me do everything. I want to do everything.' And they let me do most of it," Jacinto said. "I just felt so gratified to be able to jump into that suit, jump into that helmet. I mean, it was a pain in the butt. [Laughs] Everything looks so cool with the cape and the helmet and everything, but when you're in it and you have to actually physically fight in it, you can't breathe. You can't see. But luckily, I had a good amount of training to just prepare myself for those elements beforehand."

"Basically, we wanted a character that was not just oppressive and powerful, but we wanted a character that when you see him, you feel disturbed by him almost. That's why a lot of the music and a lot of the effects, it's almost like horror," Jacinto shared regarding his approach to the character. "We really approached it in that type of sense. We wanted a character that isn't just a Darth Vader type of guy who overpowers the screen, but it's like when you see him, it's just like, 'Oh, did I actually see that?' It's the concept of the uncanny. It can be a stumble in a person's walk or a twitch in somebody's eye. It's very subtle, and it's just like this uncomfortableness that people experience, and that's what we wanted to hone in on for this Sith Lord."

For more on Jacinto talking about The Stranger's driving force, you can check out the full interview here. New episodes of The Acolyte stream on Tuesdays on Disney+.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!