Since its inception, Star Wars has always contained some sexual tension. Throughout the franchise’s 50-year history, there have been plenty of romantic scenes, and maybe a couple of lustful looks, but for the most part Lucasfilm has kept things PG. In A New Hope, Luke is immediately smitten when the hologram of a princess pops out of R2-D2. Han and Leia are smoldering for each other pretty much the entire runtime of The Empire Strikes Back. Anakin and Padmé’s forbidden love is a core pillar of the prequels. Kylo Ren and Rey even have a Force link equivalent of “You up?” The farthest the Star Wars series has ever sexualized itself was, of course, Leia’s now-famous slave bikini. The outfit was on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine before Return of the Jedi even hit screens. One Star Wars project was ready to up the ante and finally go somewhere no one had been in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: the bedroom. Well, sort of.
Knight Media recently reported that The Acolyte‘s second season was preparing to feature a “sex” scene. Star Wars’ first love scene would have featured Amandla Stenberg’s Osha and Manny Jacinto’s Qimir hooking up in a Force meditation tank. The scene couldn’t be explicit, nor would it be conventional. Their consciousness would be intertwined through the Force. The living Force being involved implies it can consent to a metaphysical threesome. The poster notes the act would have been more akin to something like Avatar, but another commenter nailed it when they said, “Demolition Man ass sex.”
Small Tidbit…. #TheAcolyte season 2 was gonna have the first ever “sex” scene in #StarWars
Not explicit and more in line of #Avatar where Qimir and Osha are in a Force meditation tank together and their consciousness intertwine with the Force pic.twitter.com/CeHqOpAV6t
The recently resurgent Acolyte may have been the show designed to push boundaries at Lucasfilm, but this scene would have crossed a big line. George Lucas was very protective of his PG rating. Even going so far as to contact magazines that ran explicit fan fiction in the early ’80s. He did have toys to sell after all. Lucasfilm had a no sex rule in place for all of the franchise’s spin-offs and books. Legacy Star Wars novel author A.C. Crispin laid it out directly: “Hugs and kisses are fine. But don’t go beyond that.” Characters weren’t even allowed to appear in bed together.
George Lucas has acknowledged there is sex in the Star Wars universe, clarifying at one time that the Jedi weren’t celibate. He also greenlit the closest thing the series ever had to a Harlequin romance with The Courtship of Princess Leia. The most overtly romantic novel in the Expanded Universe, Courtship sees Princess Leia seduced by a dashing interstellar prince while Han plots to get her back. Solo ends up kidnapping Leia before the two are finally made husband and wife by the novel’s end, setting up a whole new generation of storytelling with their soon-to-be-born kids. The book also introduced Dathomir and the witches that reside there, making the book a pivotal entry in the Star Wars holocron. The Legends books established that you could fall in love and have kids, but couldn’t mention where they come from.
An incomprehensible number of fans had Carrie Fisher’s Slave Leia on their walls growing up. For the latest generation, Manny Jacinto became the wallpaper on their phones. The actor became a new Star Wars sex symbol when he lost the Ren-style helmet and went for a swim. In a scene that Lucas probably would have put a stop to, Qimir disrobes in front of Osha and goes for a swim in the buff. And boy is he buff… Sorry, what were we saying? Oh yeah, the scene became the new standard for thirst traps. And in this instance, the trap part is the point. Jacinto’s Qimir is trying to rattle Osha and get through her defenses. Literally seducing her to the dark side. The Acolyte‘s showrunner Leslye Headland said that was intentional: “I always really loved the line in A New Hope when Obi-Wan says ‘Vader was seduced by the Dark Side’. Always loved that word, ‘seduced’.” The show may not have worked for everyone, but Jacinto’s Qimir certainly worked on us.
