The Acolyte's Dark Plagueis look was inspired by a Guillermo del Toro horror film and early Gollum designs.

The Acolyte’s ending may have wrapped up a good chunk of the story in a galaxy far, far away – but a nasty surprise is still waiting in the wings.

Today, creator and showrunner Leslye Headland spoke about the reveal of this mysterious figure and what inspired his distinctive look.

Spoilers for The Acolyte Finale follow. You have been warned!

In the finale of The Acolyte, a towering, dark, yet strangely fragile figure emerges from the shadows of the island cavern of Qimir. Star Wars fans will know his name, if not his appearance: he is Darth Plagueis, who would later become Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine’s Sith Master.

“I’m very proud of the character design. It took a long time,” Headland told Collider of Darth Plagueis’ squid-like features.

Headland also mentioned that it was a “Crimson Peak reference,” a nod to Guillermo del Toro’s 2015 horror film and (presumably) the red ghosts found within.

“It shouldn’t be seen as a show of power, it should be scary. I think we’ve achieved that,” Headland said.

Darth Plagueis’ design was inspired by Legends and Crimson Peak by @RealGDT. “Obviously the species was determined, if not by canon, then by Legends and certainly by main canon for everyone. So when we were designing him and talking about what he would look like, it was a lot… pic.twitter.com/JZHsYuDAVAJuly 18, 2024

In a separate interview with IndieWire, the showrunner also opened up about Plagueis’ “physicality” — or lack thereof — to “create the sense that Plagueis and the Sith are not the armored, visually imposing, powerful villains that we sometimes associate with the Sith.”

But we have to go to Middle-earth to see how it all comes together – especially when it comes to The Acolyte season 2.

“The reference I used was Gollum in The Fellowship of the Ring,” Headland told Collider, a reference to how Gollum’s initial design is quite different from what we see when the character emerges into the light in The Two Towers. “You don’t want to give away the full design of the character right now, but you definitely want to see enough to understand that this is going to be a player.”

Bad news, potentially, for the budding partnership between Qimir and Osha. But at least they got to hold hands.

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