was the first video game I ever fell in love with. I still ❀play through it every couple of years – it doesn’t hold up perfectly, but it’s a classic for a reason. The fact that a remake was announced, delayed a bunch of times, and now seemingly may never be finished at all breaks my heart, and I’m choosing to pretend that the remake never existed at all just to make myself feel better.

KOTOR was my introduction into – I’d seen the prequel movies on DVD but didn’t feel strongly about them, and my parents weren’t fans who found it important to make it a part of my life. Back then, if you didn’t have DVDs of movies or a place to rent them from, there wasn’t really a way to get sucked into the🐻 galaxy far, far away. Now, it’s ea🍌sier than ever to watch a multitude of Star Wars titles, because all you need is a subscription.

I haven’t liked any of Disney’s Star Wars productions apart from Andor, but I’ve been enjoying what little we’ve seen of so far. I appreciate showrunner Leslye Headland’s approach to the nuances of the Dark and Light sides, especially when it comes to the Jedi and their casual arrogance. So when I read that H꧑eadland was and, in particular, adapting Kreia from the sequel, I was thrilled.

The Acolyte And KOTOR Have Similar Themes

It doesn’t surprise me that Knights of the Old Republic appeals to Headland. The series confronts morality pretty directly, presenting examples of what neutrality can look like in both games.𒆙 The game's main mechanic judges your inclination to the Dark and Light side with a spe🦩ctrum, and every action you do can swing you closer to either side. The first game presents Jolee and Juhani as ‘Gray Jedi’, with their moral alignments starting in the middle of the scale.

Jolee⛎ is a Chaotic Good type, according to alignments. 🅘He was considered brash and reckless for a Jedi and did some Robin Hood stuff, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor as a Padawan, and even was a smuggler for a time after imposing self-exile from the Jedi Order. Juhani, as well, is an enemy when you first encounter her, but she can be spared and given a chance to redeem herself. Her battle to be a good Jedi revolves around her trying to deal with her volatile emotions through discipline. These are striking parallels to The Acolyte’s Osha, who left the Jedi Order for similar reasons – her grief over losing her family made her unfit to be a Jedi.

KOTOR 2, in turn, offers us Kreia, the character who most interests Headland. Kreia also presents herself as a morally neutral character who has trained both as a Jedi and a Sith, and therefore rejects the divide between the Light and Dark sides of the Force. However, instead of being an overallඣ good character, it turns out she’s an extremist w෴ho wants to destroy the Force altogether.

Morally, she isn’t good or evil – she protects and defends the protagonist, encouraging them to pursue the path that’s right for them, but simultaneously manipulates them. None of these characters adhe🎶re to typical understandings of the Force, and you can empathise with all of them to some degree. Both Knights of the Old Republic games and The Acolyte ask questions about morality and what it means to be a Jedi who still has attachmenℱts, and what the broader implications of this policy are.

Unfortunately, We Probably Won’t Ever See A Live-Action KOTOR

As much as I think this possibility lines up with Headland’s thematic interests and would love to see it materialise, we’re unlikely to ever see a live-action KOTOR from anyone. While parts of the game have been canonised (we know that there was a Darth Revan, at the very least), the gamꦫes as a whole are part of the Legends storylines, and not actually canon. It’s hard to say if the remake would have been considered canon like Respawn’s recent Star Wars games are, but the point is that it’s hard to believe Disney would greenlight an adaptation of its non-canon games.

Would it make a lot of fans happy if they did? Yes. Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most popular Star Wars games ever made, and was highly influential on the RPG genre in its time. Fans have been hankering for it to be a made canon for a long time, and an adaptation would solve this and immediately garner it viewers, especially in a time where adaptations of video games are rising in popularity. Disney has also been taking strides canon-wise, experimenꦫting with time period𒁃s and settings instead of sticking closely to established canon, so I’m not willing to say that an adaptation is impossible. I’ll have my fingers crossed, but I’m definitely not holding my breath.