One of The Acolyte's big casualties praises the Star Wars show for killing them off: "There are so many directors that are scared to kill off their characters"

The Acolyte has had an undercurrent of violence and peril ever since its shocking opening scene, which saw Carrie-Anne Moss' Master Indara killed off at the hand (and blade) of Amandla Stenberg's Mae.

Despite that, not many would have predicted the bloodbath in The Acolyte episode 5. Now, creator Leslye Headland – and those involved – have opened up on the excessive kill count on Korriban.

'Night' saw the Sith Lord quite literally unmasked as Qimir (Manny Jacinto). Despite the force of the Jedi raining down on him, he got the better of multiple Knights and Padawans, including killing Jecki (Dafne Keen) and Yord (Charlie Barnett).

"I just figured someone would stop me and nobody did," Headland told Entertainment Weekly. "I figured someone would say, 'This is too far!' But they didn't."

"There are so many directors in blockbuster sagas that are so scared to kill off their characters, and are so comfortable with bringing characters back to life, and all of these little writer tricks that I think are quite cheeky," Keen explained.

"I really like that she was actually killing people. Because if you're not making it dangerous, then why are we even here? Why are we concerned by the story? Why do we care? Leslye has such a backbone as a writer, to make you fall in love with these characters and then slaughter them all like pigs and be like, 'Yeah, this is our villain. We're not just saying he's so big and scary, we're actually showing you how big and scary he is.'"

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