The Acolyte episode 5 brought a major lightsaber weakness to live-action, and showrunner Leslye Headland explained how she made cortosis fit into George Lucas’ vision for Star Wars. The Acolyte episode 5 introduced a new lightsaber resistant material called cortosis ore to live-action. Cortosis can absorb huge amounts of energy, which allowed the Stranger to shut down so many of the Jedi’s lightsabers. Cortosis has a long history in both Star Wars Legends and canon, but its appearance in a live-action Star Wars show brought it into the spotlight. Headland explained that she had to handle cortosis very carefully to preserve Lucas’ original vision.

In an interview with Inverse, Headland spoke about the decision to include cortosis and how she had to make sure that it fit in with George Lucas’ original vision without overpowering lightsabers in general.

Oh, that’s a really good question. It’s a spoiler, though… but cortosis was a big one. It’s a tricky thing because you respect George Lucas in the sense that you don’t want to weaken the power of a lightsaber. It’s almost hallowed in that sense, not just within the series, but in pop culture. But cortosis was such a great new element, and I had always thought of it as such a cool thing to incorporate. [Lucasfilm lore consultant] Pablo Hidalgo and I worked a lot on the machinations of it before we started designing it. It was very important that it be breakable, that it basically not be super hard. It’s why Jecki can get the helmet off him so quickly. It’s kind of a brittle thing. There’s also a limited resource of it, which is why he doesn’t have a whole suit of armor, and it only works for maybe a minute. We worked really hard on what it would look like, because we didn’t want it to look too powerful or too goofy. Pablo, [visual artist] Rob Bredow, and I talked a lot about it. So that’s the cortosis story, but the other Legends stuff we can talk about after the finale.

Introducing anything that threatens to detract from lightsabers is always a massive risk, but luckily Headland and the creative team of The Acolyte nailed it with cortosis. By introducing weaknesses inherent to cortosis like its brittleness and rarity, The Acolyte was able to have an awesome moment of seeing the Stranger shut down lightsabers without ruining them. Headland clearly treated both cortosis and lightsabers with quite a bit of care and attention, and it worked wonderfully for The Acolyte episode 5.

Don’t Expect To See Too Much Cortosis In The Future

One of the key weaknesses of cortosis will keep it from becoming a major threat to lightsabers, but it could also limit how much screen time the material gets in the future. Headland explained that cortosis is a very rare material, and even the Stranger could only get enough of it for a helmet and a gauntlet. Cortosis’ rarity keeps it from being overpowered, but it also means it likely won’t show up much in future Star Wars stories. While it’s a shame more scenes like the Stranger’s battle with the Jedi on Khofar won’t happen soon, it’s likely for the best.

The rarity of cortosis is probably the most important factor in keeping it balanced and letting lightsabers remain the best weapon in Star Wars. Its vulnerability to physical attacks definitely weakens cortosis, but even that wouldn’t be enough on its own to keep it from being an anti-Jedi weapon. If cortosis was easily accessible, anybody could instantly counter a lightsaber, even if the Jedi could eventually break it. The only way to keep cortosis from becoming the galaxy’s best defense against Jedi was to make it extremely rare, so Headland and The Acolyte‘s creative team made the right call.

Knowing that cortosis won’t play a very big role in the future of Star Wars also makes the fight on Khofar even better. The Stranger’s ability to shut down lightsabers will remain (mostly) unique to him, and cement him as one of the biggest threats the Jedi ever saw. The rarity of cortosis also maintains the element of surprise The Acolyte episode 5 had, and prevents it from being just some gimmick anybody could take advantage of. Leslye Headland and The Acolyte perfectly balanced cortosis, and it paid off extremely well.

New episodes of The Acolyte premiere on Tuesday nights on Disney+.

Source: Inverse