Who is Kelnacca in ‘The Acolyte?’

Leslye Headland has officially made her mark on the Star Wars mythos, with her flashy-yet-mysterious brainchild The Acolyte having officially wrapped its first season as of last week. And, while it seems to have a firm grasp on the cartoonishness that made the original Star Wars films pop, a possible second season would do well to beef up its storytelling merits.

Indeed, the intrigue and characterization were solid enough in the two-episode debut, but the dialogue only seemed to nosedive as time went on, and it became harder and harder to well and truly buy into the plot.

So, what’s the lesson we should all be taking from this, folks? That’s right; the moment you kill off your Wookiee characters, your show becomes way worse.

Who is Kelnacca in The Acolyte?

From what little we got to know of him, Kelnacca led a pretty quiet life, but was once part of a Jedi team who was sent to Brendok, the home planet of Osha and Mae. Here, Kelnacca and the rest of the team (including Indara, Torbin, and Sol) took it upon themselves to get involved with the coven that Mae and Osha grew up under, only to create severe tension that eventually turned bloody. During this time, Kelnacca fell under the mind-control Force powers of the coven, and fought against Torbin and Sol. He was later freed by Indara.

Over a decade later Mae intended to turn herself into Kelnacca (and, by extension, the Jedi Order) for the crime of killing Indara and Torbin. Unfortunately, Qimir got to him first, and so Mae wound up greeting Kelnacca’s corpse instead.

In short, Kelnacca was a Jedi who got roped into some very shady Jedi shenanigans, and paid the price by being forced to attack his friends and getting assassinated later on, probably with a fair share of guilt to boot.

The first season of The Acolyte is available to stream in full on Disney Plus.