‘The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Book Reveals Yoda and Vernestra Proposed Season One Extended Scene

New ‘The Acolyte’ Book Reveals Alternate Ending for ‘Star Wars’ Beloved Canceled Series

The explosive series finale of The Acolyte is one that will be talked about for decades to come. The episode highlighted shocking reveals, intense lightsaber action, emotional character moments, and major Star Wars lore connections, particularly the surprise appearance of Jedi Master Yoda.

In the very last scene of the final episode, Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh sought a private audience with Yoda, but the conversation was intentionally left off-screen with no spoken dialogue between the two in the aired episode other than Vernestra entering and saying, “Master Yoda, sorry to disturb you. We need to talk.” You only see the Jedi Master from behind within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant before the screen cuts to black and the credits roll.

Now thanks to the upcoming release of The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte by Kristin Baver, we now can confirm that a much more substantial sequence was planned than the one that originally aired.

Unlike the wordless cameo that aired, this sequence would’ve played out in the Galactic Senate Building with Rwoh being confronted by Yoda with dialogue aimed at providing a clearer understanding of her decision to lie about the events on Brendok and pin the blame on Master Sol to protect the Jedi Order’s reputation.

Knowing these new details fans have to wonder just how much Yoda truly understood about the murders, the cover-up, and the growing shadows threatening the Jedi. 

During the editing of the finale scene, director Leslie Headland felt the scene disrupted the flow of the show’s ending. This was why it was reduced to a wordless, back-of-the-head cameo. It was originally written to connect the show’s events to the prequel era and the Jedi Council’s later belief that the Sith were all but extinct.

“There was a moment when I think you understood Vernestra’s choice to betray Sol,” Headland explains in the new book.

“As she was leaving, she walked out and looked up as Senator Rayencourt said, ‘Welcome to the world of politics’.

“But as we were editing things together, it did seem a little odd to end Vernestra’s story, only to come back to her talking to Yoda.”

Weeks after the final episode aired, the show was unceremoniously canceled by Disney. But before its cancellation, Headland and her team were hard at work developing a multi-season roadmap that would have featured Master Yoda more prominently, exploring his awareness of the rising dark side threat and his interaction with the newly revealed Darth Plagueis.

That’s why it was important to introduce Yoda,” Headland told Entertainment Weekly. “If you were going to introduce Plagueis, then you needed a formidable other side of that. As somebody that knows who Plagueis is and knows where the lineage of the Sith is headed, it would be imbalanced if you didn’t have somebody on the light side who carried as much gravitas. So to me, it just made sense.”

The writers originally wanted to tie in with themes from the prequel, so that’s why they planned along with Headland to shoot the scene where Vernestra is confronted in the Galactic Senate Building.

“It didn’t work in the edit, but it’s just one of those things that I really miss, you know?” Headland said.

“I’m so sad we had to cut this. It was a good one.”

The decision to sideline Yoda would’ve created space for many of the series characters stories to flourish, but it also would’ve raised the questions about how Yoda’s presence might have changed the course of future events. Many longtime Star Wars fans speculated that the proposed Yoda storyline plans would have “twisted the timeline” by revealing how much the Jedi Council knew about the Sith long before the events of The Phantom Menace.

Yoda’s and Vernestra planned dialog joins many others that will never have a conclusion but will hopefully still be explored in the future of the Star Wars universe. The series cancellation was primarily due to the show’s high production cost (approx. $230 million) not being justified by its final viewership numbers. While fans have campaigned for a renewal or a follow-up film to resolve cliffhangers involving Yoda and Plagueis, Disney has maintained its decision to not move forward as of early 2026.

The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte hits bookstores on February 3.

May the Force be with you….