Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for The Acolyte episode “Night” are ahead!
When one makes their way through the Star Wars movies in order and the accompanying TV shows, they’re going to see a lot of characters die in a galaxy far, far away. Still, by this franchise’s standards, the latest episode of The Acolyte, “Night,” to hit the 2024 TV schedule was particularly brutal. On top of a handful of background Jedi being killed by Qimir, who was revealed to be Mae’s self-proclaimed Sith master, this episode also saw the villain fatally stabbing Jecki Lon and snapping Yord Fender’s neck. As Star Wars fans with a Disney+ subscription are still reeling from these shocking scenes, Charlie Barnett, who played the latter character, opened up about shooting what he considers a “nice death.”
After sharing how he didn’t want to watch Dafne Keen shoot her final scene as Jecki on The Acolyte, saying he didn’t “want to see her die four times over” and called it “just visceral and fucked up and sad,” Barnett shared the following information about filming his death scene with Manny Jacinto, who plays Qimir, in his interview with EW:
Let’s just put it out there: Manny, beyond being an extremely handsome gentleman, is one of the kindest people ever. And in rehearsing it, we’ve got to move slow. So throughout all this time, I'm just being held by Manny, and he is just cradling my head and being like, “Oh, Charlie, does that hurt when I crack your neck that way?” And I'm like, “No, man. You're killing me. It's totally fine. You can crack my neck however you're f---ing going to crack it. I'm going to be dead.” But it was actually really comforting and peaceful. And he's so sweet and so kind that it was like I was gently being killed until we were like, “Okay, let's speed this baby up.” And then I am dead on the floor. It was a nice death. It was luxurious.
Hey, if you’re an actor playing a character who’s being killed off, a “nice” and “luxurious” death is the best kind of exit to make. Had Yord followed through on Master Sol’s orders to get Osha out of the area, we likely would have seen him around for the rest of The Acolyte Season 1. However, sensing that Qimir was going to kill everyone, Osha returned to the scene with him along. That proved to be his undoing, although Yord’s intervention enraged Sol enough that he was able to overpower Qimir, and from there, Osha lured the forest bugs into carrying the Dark Side user away.
While there are instances in the Star Wars mythology of characters being revived from the dead, it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards for Yord and Jecki. So on the subject of what he takes away from Yord’s demise, Charlie Barnett said this:
When Osha convinces me that Jecki is in danger, I know my duty is to bring this civilian up to the ship and get out of here as quickly as possible, but my heart breaks, and it's the first time my compassion supersedes. And all the responsibility of what you must live up to goes out the window. And yes, sadly, he doesn't survive and win off of that kind of energy. I think it's kind of the fault of not living in that place for more of his life. He was too confined, and you see his demise from it. These are all the reasonings why he loses so much of what he knows he's good at, which is fighting, because his attachments and his emotional connection speak louder in that moment.
Yord Fandar was quickly established in The Acolyte as a by-the-book Jedi who didn’t think outside of the box as often as he should have. That’s not to say a shift into a less confined personality would have saved him from being killed by Qimir, but as Barnett sees it, maybe if Yord had had a better handle on those kinds of emotions, his mind would have been in a more balanced state when he returned to fight the antagonist. Alas, his story is done (assuming some kind of Star Wars Rebels-like twist isn’t on the way), so let’s pour one out for the fallen Jedi, Yord Horde!
There are three episodes left to go this season on The Acolyte, so continue visiting CinemaBlend for coverage on the latest development. There’s also plenty of news on upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows to keep track of, with the franchise’s next onscreen offering being Skeleton Crew sometime later this year.
