The Acolyte's Manny Jacinto Has One Condition To Return To The Star Wars Universe
by Bryan Young · /FilmLast weekend I had the pleasure of interviewing Manny Jacinto on stage at Indiana Comic Convention. Naturally his role in "Star Wars: The Acolyte" came up, especially in light of Leslye Headland's recent comments to Empire Magazine about still wanting to do a second season of the show. I had to ask him if he would come back as the Stranger, the mysterious Sith who apprenticed under Darth Plagueis. His answer was enthusiastic, but he had one condition for returning:
"There is no Stranger without Leslye. It's the people that that help build this character, it's not just me, it's like, the costume designers, it's our writers, it's all that stuff. It took a took a team to build the Stranger. I would love to do it with them as well."
Interest in "The Acolyte" is rising, too. Back in April 2026 it cracked the top 10 on the Disney+ streaming network again, showing that people still want to watch it, despite what I would characterize as a manufactured backlash. For his part, Jacinto found the renewed interest gratifying:
"Before I'd done a convention it was really tough," he said in front of the assembled crowd. "There's a lot of the online talk, a lot of the keyboard warriors who I think are the loudest ones and the nastiest ones. But, you come here and get so much love. And two things: First, I hope that, Amandla [Stenberg] and Leslye know how much people love the show. And second, I'm just so incredibly proud of it. I went went on to this set and tried to take everything in and be present. I'm so lucky that I got to step into this character and into that storyline and I'm super proud of what we did and you never know what'll happen."
Qimir's costume had to be changed to hide the Stranger's arms
While I had him on stage, I couldn't let Manny Jacinto go without talking about "The Acolyte" in more detail beyond his interest in doing more. One of the things we talked about was the incredible costume design by Jennifer Bryan.
He took the opportunity to explain to me that his arms almost gave away the secret of the Stranger (a character who was almost tied to the Knights of Ren). He had done so much training and bulked his arms up that when he went into his costume fitting for Qimir, the alter ego of the Stranger, he had to explain to the costume designer why it wasn't going to work.
"I told Jennifer I'm not brand new here. 'I'm just saying, if you bring the arms out now, that's a dead giveaway.' So she looked at me and I..." At this point, Jacinto pantomimed flexing his biceps. "So I had to show her and then we ended up covering up everything. Because Qimir's arms versus the Stranger's arms ... The Stranger has me arms. Qimir, no."
You'll notice that, in the finished episodes, Qimir is always wearing very loose, baggy clothing that makes him look very wiry and thin, but the Stranger shows off Jacinto's physique. He helped the costume designers make absolutely the right call.
Manny Jacinto's favorite Star Wars movies
No conversation about "Star Wars would be complete without talking about our favorite "Star Wars" movies. When asked what his favorite installment of the franchise — outside of "The Acolyte" — was, Manny Jacinto took a long moment to think, and ultimately couldn't pick just one. He had to split his decision between two all-time favorites. "I mean, 'Rogue One,' because we were just talking about it, but also the stunt-choreographers that were on that were all part of 'The Acolyte.' And that Darth Vader scene in the hallway? That was incredible.
"But I mean, I really grew up on 'The Phantom Menace.' That one as well. Playing the 'Pod Racer' game on N64? that was great. So, those two. That's my answer."
In the meantime, we can still hope that "The Acolyte" continues in order to answer all of the mysteries it left dangling at its conclusion.