Summary
Dafne Keen, the actor who portrays Jecki Lon inThe Acolyte, recently spoke about her role in theStar Warsshow and hinted at how her Jedi Padawan character would highlight one of Yoda’s mistakes from the prequels.Jecki Lon is a Theelin-human hybrid, and she seems to be one of the central figures ofThe Acolyte’s cast of characters. As the Padawan of Jedi Master Sol, she’ll likely help reveal many of theupcomingStar Warsshow’smysteries, but one of Keen’s comments suggested she could even reveal something about the franchise as a whole.
In an exclusive interview withScreen Rant, Keen spoke about how she approached playing a part-Theelin character, how Jecki Lon and her background were conceptualized, and her history with the Jedi Order.
“I think a lot of Jecki was her Theelin side, and it was a huge honor to get to play her because this was something that Leslye picked out specifically because she loves Theelin species and she loved the Theelin performer in the cantina.
“It was so fun to kind of play with that alienness that she has. But also, she’s such a human! I had a lot of conversations with Pablo [Hidalgo], the Star Wars expert, who we had on set. I went to Pablo all the time with questions, and we figured out that she was probably mostly human She was probably 90% human and 10% Theelin, which is interesting. But a lot of how I broke her down was trying to figure out how young she was taken into the Order, to see how much of that she might’ve inherited. And then what that does to a child, ripping them away from their planet and away from their family and [educating them] in a place where you are just at school all the time. That’s kind of what it is. It’s like a boarding school for two decades of your life, but it’s almost a religion.
“There’s something so fascinating to me about the Jedi that I really had such a fun time sinking my teeth into it, and finding how much of her essence would’ve remained after having spent such a long time surrounded by just Jedi.”
Alien-human hybrids are rarely portrayed in live-actionStar Wars, and, as Keen noted, playing one brought a unique opportunity to explore two sides of the same character. Jecki Lon also gave Keen an interesting backstory to explore in her relation to the Jedi Order.As Keen said, most of Jecki Lon’s life has been spent in the Order, and exploring her relationship to the Jedi, especially after being taken from her family, should make for a very interesting character. Jecki Lon’s early days in the Jedi Order aren’t just interesting pieces of backstory, though, they also reveal something about the prequel trilogy.
Star Wars: The Acolyte - Cast, Story Details & Everything We Know
The upcoming Star Wars show The Acolyte will take the franchise into the grand High Republic era, but what mysteries await in the Jedi’s golden age?
Dafne Keen Implies The High Republic Jedi Were Older Recruits
An interesting part of Keen’s answer was when she said she and Pablo Hidalgo tried to figure out at what age Jecki Lon was taken from her biological family. The Jedi Order in the prequel era was shown to take Force-sensitive younglings at a very early age, usually before they were even capable of remembering their birth families.Keen’s comments, though, seem to suggest that Jecki Lon was taken at a much older age, and they could even hint that the Jedi of the High Republic generally allowed for older recruits, which would be a major change from the prequel era Jedi.
Jecki Lon
Jecki is the Padawan apprentice to Master Sol. Although she is young, she projects calm and conducts herself with maturity.
One of the few exceptions to the Order’s policy on the age of their recruits in the prequel trilogy was Anakin Skywalker. When Qui-Gon Jinn suggested the Council allow Anakin to be trained as a Jedi, Yoda and Mace Windu were among the most vocal opponents, as they both thought that Anakin was too old to properly be taught.Mace and Yoda’s fears about Anakin would seem much less justified, though, if Jecki Lon truly did begin her Jedi training at an older age. If the Jedi were fine with taking older recruits just a century prior, why did Anakin cause so much fear?
There was likely a reason for such a shift in thinking between the prequels and the High Republic, andThe Acolytecould reveal what that reason was. It’s possible thatAmandla Stenberg’s Mae, a former Padawan herself, will be the reason for the shift in the rules, as the Order would likely want to avoid another one of their recruits turning to the dark side. The truth can only be revealed byThe Acolyteitself, though, but the reason for the Order’s policy on age adds yet another layer of mystery to the show.
