The new Disney+ “Star Wars” series, “The Acolyte,” appeared to quote DailyWire+ host Dr. Jordan B. Peterson in a line from one of the show’s villains in a recent episode.
Screenwriters and a comic book author have seemingly used Peterson as a template for villains in the past, including in Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” and in a “Captain America” comic. After episode 5 of “The Acolyte” dropped last week, using Peterson as the inspiration behind a story’s bad guy appears to be a trend.
The latest example of a villain appearing to quote Peterson was first reported by Looper last week. In the episode, Qimir — played by Manny Jacinto — quotes something said by Peterson in a 2022 interview nearly word-for-word.
“Even in the revelation of our triumph, we see the depth of our despair,” Qimir says at the end of the episode.
On January 3, 2022, Peterson appeared on entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s podcast “The Diary of a CEO,” and said, “Wherever I go in the world people come up to me and they often have a pretty rough story to relate. It’s an awful thing because you see, even in the revelation of their triumph, the initial depth of their despair.”
“First Red Skull, then Olivia Wilde’s movie villain, now a Dark Side villain. I can’t,” Peterson’s daughter, Mikhaila, tweeted on Sunday.
“Also Dream Scenario with Nicolas Cage also took some ideas from dad. Too good,” she added.
“The Acolyte” was roundly mocked just a few episodes into its first season, and after its showrunner laughed about people calling it “the gayest Star Wars.” In one episode, a character makes an effort to use “they/them” pronouns when referring to someone. The series sits at a 14% Rotten Tomatoes audience score even though critics overall gave it a high rating of 83%.
In 2021, Leftist activist Ta-Nehisi Coates created a Nazi villain in his “Captain America” comic who espoused views that echoed the titles of some of Peterson’s works.
A year later, Wilde, the director of “Don’t Worry Darling,” revealed that the film’s villain is based on Peterson, referring to the renowned psychologist as an “insane man” who is a “pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community.”
“People have been after me for a long time because I’ve been speaking to disaffected young men — what a terrible thing to do, that is,” he said in response to Wilde’s comments, adding, “I thought the marginalized were supposed to have a voice.”