The Acolyte may have been one of the shortest-lived Star Wars shows, but it opened up an entirely new chapter of the timeline. Set a century before the prequel trilogy, it was able to show viewers what the galaxy looked like before Palpatine and Anakin even existed. A certain Sith, however, was around back in those days, and in the show’s finale, we finally saw him: Darth Plagueis, the Sith master destined to train Palpatine.
His appearance, a teaser for a Season 2 that would never be, was brief and lacking details, so it was hard to glean anything from it. However, a new book has just revealed crucial information about the scene that ties it to Plagueis’ backstory.
In The Acolyte Visual Guide, which came out on June 17, we learn more about the planet where Qimir brings Osha while Plagueis hides in the shadows. The Acolyte unhelpfully labeled it “unknown planet,” leading some fans to speculate, based on its landscape, that it might be Ahch-To, the birthplace of the Jedi Order. But the Visual Guide tells us that “an intelligent reptilian species lives far from the islands.”
This could normally be dismissed as flavor text, but it actually confirms a big fan theory. In 2012, Star Wars released the novel Darth Plagueis by James Luceno, which dove into Palpatine’s master as he finds Sheev Palpatine, then a minor royal on Naboo, to take as his apprentice. Much of the book was set on Bal’demnic, an ocean planet first seen in Star Wars: Clone Wars, and it discussed how the planet was inhabited by the Kon’me, a sentient lizard species.
It’s not the only evidence that this “unknown planet” could be familiar. In The Acolyte, Qimir uses a helmet and gauntlets made from cortosis, a mineral so strong it not only stops lightsabers, but even temporarily deactivates them. In Darth Plagueis, Plagueis sells the mining rights to Bal’Demnic because it’s rich in cortosis. If cortosis is as rare as it seems, this can’t be a coincidence.
Unfortunately, both Clone Wars and Darth Plagueis are now part of the non-canonical Legends continuity, meaning it’s harder to connect the two without explicit confirmation from another source. Still, Bal’demnic seems like the most obvious explanation here. We know so little about Plagueis that any scrap of info is a revelation... and gets us closer to the official Plagueis TV show we all know we need.
