A lot of potential is left on the table as to when The Acolyte shocked dismissed after just one season—but one of the biggest losses was the chance to get more Manny Jacinto’s mysterious Sith maskQimir, aka the Stranger. But while we are still mourning what could have been ahead, we get a picture of how we got there this week in the form of a real treasure of Acolyte work of art.

Released this week from Abrams Books, The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte (written by Kristin Baver) packed with over 200 pages of artwork and interviews with the crew behind the Star Wars streaming series, developing the first ideas for the show and how it brought the era of the High Republic from the pages of books and comics to live-action.

There is, of course, a lot of work dedicated to characters like the twin girls Mae and Osha, the Jedi we’ve met throughout the series from Vernestra Rwoh to Sol and his apprentice Jecki, and more understanding of what The Acolyte could have been and, perhaps most interestingly, where it would have gone if it had continued. But one of the most interesting sections of all fittingly contains the most interesting figure of all in Stranger-giving us a look not only at how the design of the team finally settled on its iconic. cortosis-imbued grinning helmetbut ideas where the Stranger came from his potential origin as the first of the Knights of Ren in what happens to the other mysterious player in the shadows of his island home, Darth Plagueis.

“In early designs, we toyed with the idea of ​​a mask reminiscent of the Bith species. This initial idea evolved into what we saw on screen,” concept artist Nick Tyrrell said of Stranger’s final mask form in io9’s exclusive preview The Art of Star Wars: The Acolytewhich you can see below. “The feeling we wanted to bring out with this mask is that the Stranger is a Sith on a budget – he had to make this mask himself from cortosis metal and then welded it to the best of his abilities, with limited resources.”

“Leslye (Headland, Acolyte showrunner) wanted it to feel like a sensory deprivation helmet with an uneasy smile,” continued Tyrrell. “By making the shape from his respiratory apparatus, which reaches the middle, you get an evil smile without it feeling like the Stranger did it that way on purpose.”

Check out more insight into Stranger’s origins in our preview below.

The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte hit the shelves on February 3 and aavailable for purchase where all good artbooks are sold.

Excerpt from new book The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte (Abrams) by Kristin Baver, on sale February 3 © & TM 2026 Lucasfilm Ltd.

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