Amandla Stenberg Talks ‘The Acolyte’ Finale & ‘Oshamir’ in Season 2

[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 8, “The Acolyte.”]

Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) has officially joined the Dark Side.

In the finale’s last moments she stands overlooking the sea, hand-in-hand (swoon) with Sith ally “The Stranger,” otherwise known as Qimir (Manny Jacinto). It’s a sweet moment for the ‘shippers, but with tragic undertones. Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is dead, all the tragedy that unfolded throughout the season wrongly pinned on him. Osha’s twin, Mae (also portrayed by Stenberg), has no memory of her. And in the shadows of Bal’demnic, legendary Sith Lord Darth Plagueis appears to have taken an interest in Osha and Qimir’s alliance… which could be very bad for their romance. (Based on his expression, Plagueis does not ship it.)

We chatted with Stenberg about finale fight choreography, whether there’s any conflict remaining in Osha after her big moment of vengeance, and what might happen with ‘Oshamir’ and Plagueis in a potential second season.

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First, I want to talk about the finale. What was it like to film a fight scene with yourself?

Amandla Stenberg: Oh my God, it’s so much fun. It’s so much fun. And the choreography that our stunt coordinator, Chris Cowan, and my kung fu master, Junchang Lu, created was so metaphorical and visually so cool. We start the fight out with two very different fighting styles, but something that I always loved throughout the season that Chris did was make sure that the stunt choreography had an emotional narrative, too, so they start mirroring each other in a really fun way. It was challenging. I had to learn both sides. I had to remember exactly how I had performed it, and even the vocal intonation I was giving, to make sure that the emotional narrative was maintained while I was fighting. It was so much fun, and I had so much support. I have to shout out my stuntmen, Kellina Rutherford and Cassie Jo Craig, because they tore it up, also.

To what extent does Osha feel guilt about killing Sol? Is there any remorse or regret remaining within her, or is she set on her path and not looking back?

Ooooh, that’s a good question. I think it’s both. I think that she’s experiencing an immense amount of pain and trauma while at the same time experiencing what it’s like to be fully embodied in herself. Sometimes those things are at odds with each other.

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I also have to ask about Plagueis. There’s so much we don’t know about what he’s up to, or why he’s sort of spying on Qimir and Osha, but — how would you feel about Osha eventually coming face-to-face with him?

Would I be down? Are you kidding me! I’m going to text Leslye and say, like, ‘If I get to have scenes with Plagueis you can name my child, or something.’ [laughs] That has been my dream from the jump. Actually, when we were in pre-production, like any other Star Wars fan, I was like ‘We’re in the High Republic era, so we’ve gotta have something about Plagueis in the show. There’s no way we’re not heading toward Plagueis.’ Then when I sort of pieced together where we were in the timeline, plus the conception of the twins through Force magic, and then I thought about Palpatine’s monologue and how he alludes to Plagueis and the immaculate conception of life, I thought, oh my goodness. This has to be intertwined, somehow. So I came to Leslye and I said, ‘Is this related to Plagueis? Are we heading toward Darth Plagueis?’ and Leslye just winked and smiled at me. That was all I was really given on the subject until Tuesday, when I saw him on the screen for the first time. I’m catching up too, y’all! I, too, have conspiracy theories that, thankfully, came to fruition.

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In reading Collider’s interview with Leslye, I’d seen that the last—and dare I say, already iconic—hand-hold between Osha and Qimir was your and Manny’s idea. Can you talk me through how you came up with that?

Originally, it was supposed to be a kiss. But we arrived to that point after months of filming and for me, having gone through Osha’s emotional arc, it just didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel earned yet. It felt like so much had happened in the finale, Osha had already experienced so much emotional turmoil and these profound shifts in her conception of self and the truth had changed so much — it felt more powerful to continue routing the intimacy and tension of their relationship. We had a lot of discussions about this, and Manny came up with that. He said there can still be a way that they touch or that we signify that there is chemistry between them, while also metaphorically embodying the fact that they are two people in the world who have experienced a lot of pain and now understand each other and are embodying their power together. He came up with that. Manny’s just the bomb.

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I was also intrigued by something Leslye had said about Osha and Qimir’s dynamic in a potential Season 2 — that it’ll inherently be off-balance, because the way of the Sith is for one to have power, and one to crave it. Can you add to, or expand on, that? In Season 2, would Osha the one craving power — or does she have it?

Well, yeah, that gets tricky to get into because there are many questions about the Rule of Two that would be answered, and that there are discussions going on about. But I don’t know! I keep seeing memes and TikToks of Osha walking in front of Qimir with the song “Walk ‘Em Like a Dog” playing. [laughs] People are so funny on the Internet, but they’re honestly reading into something that we were wildly hoping would read, which is that Osha and Qimir challenge each other in completely new ways than they’ve experienced before. Qimir is challenged by her. We were very careful about constructing that, when Osha goes into the cave; she’s not someone who is susceptible to his manipulations. They are two people with their own sets of ideas and feelings, and those come together in this explosive way.

The Acolyte, Season 1, streaming, Disney+