This article contains spoilers from The Acolyte season 1, episode 5, “Night.”

The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland confirms how the death of Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) in episode 5, “Night” challenges the expectations of modern Star Wars. The Jedi Padawan was killed by Qimir (Manny Jacinto), also known as the Stranger, in the devastating episode.

While speaking with Inverse, Headland addresses the creative and narrative decisions behind Jecki’s death and why it is important to break some of the expectations surrounding Disney’s Star Wars. Read her comments below:

I do think it’s kind of cool that there’s a lot of, for lack of a better term, self-awareness among the Star Wars franchise. There are certain Disney rules like “Oh, yeah, you’re not going to kill that character. How could you?” And not only did we kill that character, but we killed the character in such a shocking and frankly upsetting way — and then didn’t even really give her a hero death either. I mean, she has the hero’s death because she gets Qimir’s helmet off before she dies.

More to come…

Source: Inverse