The Acolyte, starring Amandla Stenberg, is not getting back for a second season. Sources told Deadline that Lucasfilm has decided to cancel the show.
Even though The Acolyte introduced fresh characters and lore to the Star Wars universe, its story about the dark side of the Force is not going to continue due to extreme fan disappointment.
It was launched on June 4 with two episodes, drawing 4.8 million views on its first day. This made it the biggest series premiere on Disney plus this year.
After five days, views rose to 11.1 million globally. According to data shared by Disney, the series debuted at No. 7 on Nielsen’s Top 10 originals chart, with 488 million minutes watched. It moved up to No. 6 the next week.
Image source: Disney Plus
Performance of “The Acolyte“ on Disney+
On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie got a decent 78% approval rating from critics after 246 reviews. However, the audience score was much lower at just 18%, based on over 25,000 ratings.
Disney decided to cancel the show mainly because it didn’t attract many viewers. The disappointing ratings were a key factor. They likely felt it was not worth continuing. The low numbers were hard to ignore.
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The Acolyte couldn’t keep up the momentum. It fell out of the Top 10 in Week 3 and stayed off until it returned at No. 10 after the finale, with 335 million minutes watched. This is believed to be the lowest for a Star Wars series finale.
While the season one finale hinted at the possibility of more episodes, Deadline has reported that Disney decided to cancel The Acolyte.The show faced challenges from the start. Some Star Wars fans were unhappy with the cast and storyline. This led to a surge of review-bombing.
Like Netflix and Prime Video, Disney+ requires very high viewership numbers to renew expensive series. Shows that cost over $100 million per season need to perform well to get a renewal.
Image source: Star Wars News Net
The cancellation comes a bit over a year after Disney CEO Bob Iger hinted in a CNBC interview that cutting back on expensive projects, like Marvel and Star Wars, might be needed to boost the finances of the company. Given how costly The Acolyte was to make, it is not surprising the show is ending so soon.
Anyone who has been online in recent months likely knows about the smear campaign against the show, its creator, and the cast, coming from the more negative corners of the Star Wars fandom.
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Most of the criticism was not really about the quality of the show but was more focused on supposed contradictions with the “Legends canon” and biased views rooted in sexism and racism.
