‘The Acolyte’ Full List of Writers Revealed by WGA
Up until now, we’d only learned about a couple of writers who had worked under Leslye Headland’s direction on The Acolyte. Names like Charmaine DeGraté, Jocelyn Bioh, or Jason Micallef had popped up this past year, but now we have the full list of writers posted to the WGA website.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Episode 1, written by showrunner Leslye Headland (who also directs it)
- Episode 2, written by Jason Micallef and Charmaine DeGraté
- Episode 3, written by Jasmyne Flournoy and Eileen Shim
- Episode 4, written by Claire Klechel and Kor Adana
- Episode 5, written by Kor Adana and Cameron Squires
- Episode 6, written by Jason Micallef and Jocelyn Bioh
- Episode 7, written by Charmaine DeGraté, Jen Richards, and Jasmyne Flournoy
- Episode 8, written by Jason Micallef
Plenty of these names are news to us, so let’s try to break it down. Headland is obviously the captain of the ship; she created the series, is the showrunner and an executive producer, and also wrote/directed the pilot. Jason Micallef is also an executive producer; he doesn’t have any IMDb writing credits since his 2018-created show Heathers. He co-wrote two of the episodes and solely wrote the finale (which we know since this summer).
Charmaine DeGraté’s involvement has also been public for a few months, though we didn’t know the extent. DeGraté was a writer on the staff of House of the Dragon, and wrote the fifth episode of the first season of that show. Here, DeGraté is a co-writer on two of the episodes and also a co-executive producer.
Jasmyne Flournoy has worked on several shows, though as a writer’s assistant or a production assistant. With The Acolyte, Flournoy is making the jump to staff writer and co-author of two episodes. Eileen Shim, similar to DeGraté, was a member of the staff of House of the Dragon, and wrote the eighth episode; Shim co-wrote an episode of The Acolyte and is a producer on the show as well.
Kor Adana co-wrote two episodes of the show, and is also a co-executive producer; Adana has previously worked on Mr. Robot and is also a co-executive producer on Max’s Dune: The Sisterhood series. Cameron Squires worked as a staff writer on WandaVision, and is now a co-producer on The Acolyte and also co-writer of an episode.
Jocelyn Bioh’s name had also appeared online this summer as a co-writer of the sixth episode, though the LinkedIn post in which that information was posted mentioned Headland was the co-writer of that episode. (The post was made by Hanelle M. Culpepper, who directed episodes 6 and 8.) Bioh is also a consulting producer on the show, and worked with Headland as a writer and actress in Russian Doll. Finally, Jen Richards is a co-writer on one of the episodes and a consulting producer on The Acolyte, after an acting career in TV that included shows like Blindspotting and Better Things. Richards has also written and co-produced 2016’s Her Story.
As far as the directors’ list, we’ll have to wait to be closer to release, but four names have come up so far: Headland (episode 1), Kogonada, Alex García López, and Hanelle M. Culpepper (episodes 6 and 8). The cast includes Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Jodie Turner-Smith, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman, Dafne Keen, Manny Jacinto, Carrie-Anne Moss, and of course, Joonas Suotamo as a new Wookiee Jedi and Rebecca Henderson as fan-favorite Vernestra Rwoh (first introduced in the High Republic novels).
The Acolyte is set 100 years before The Phantom Menace and will focus on dark-side Force users. It’s a mystery thriller set in the final days of the High Republic, focused on Amandla Stenberg’s character. The main storyline, focused on the investigation of a series of mysterious crimes, kicks off with a reunion between her and her former master, played by Lee Jung-jae.
The series will debut on Disney Plus sometime in 2024. A second season has been planned, though it’s unknown if it’s in development at the moment.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
