Star Wars: The Acolyte is being cancelled after shaky first season
As far as Star Wars As quotes go, Yoda’s “Do or do not, there is no try” is certainly one of the best. First up reported by DeadlineLucasfilm has chosen to “not” comment on the potential second season of The Acolytewith the Star Wars spin-off being cancelled just over a month after the first season concluded.
The Acolyte is a prequel series, set approximately 100 years earlier Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menacein which a respected Jedi Master investigates a series of crimes, encountering a former Padawan and sinister forces.
A mystery thriller set in the Star Wars universe featuring a Jedi detective? That might be the coolest premise I’ve ever heard – but I couldn’t get into it, and as it turns out, I wasn’t the only one.
The Acolyte drew nearly 5 million views on its first day – making it the biggest Disney Plus launch of the year – and four days later it had a very healthy 11.1 million views worldwide. Ranking sixth and seventh in its first two weeks in the Nielsen Top 10 Originals Chartit disappeared from the net and only reappeared in the final episode, dropping it to 10th place according to Deadline – with the lowest ratings for a Star Wars last episode of the series.
It wasn’t all bad though. Although Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s audience score on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at a rotten 18%the ‘All Critics’ score is a much healthier 78%.
While this project was surrounded by controversy – mostly mind-numbing complaints aimed at its female lead (Amanda Stenberg) and its diverse cast – which may explain some of its poor ratings, the drop in ratings suggests that its on-screen performance didn’t do much either. Even my Star Wars-obsessed coworker didn’t finish it. That said, the first season had some interesting storylines that hinted at a second season, plus it ended on a cliffhanger. So its cancellation comes as a bit of a shock.
Or not?
I have a bad feeling about this
While it could easily be dismissed as a bad series with subpar acting and script that left us complaining about the Sith Lord reveal, I think that’s unfair and only half the story.
Those things are true, at least from what I’ve heard, read and seen, but two specific nails that are in The AcolyteThe coffin marked his demise.
An eight-episode season with an average episode length of less than 35 minutes, the reported budget was an astronomical $180 million. That’s $22.5 million per episode and almost $650,000 per minute. For reference, House of the DragonThe series’ second season reportedly has a budget of $20 million per episode (totaling $160 million) — with episodes twice as long as The Acolyte‘S.
The AcolyteThe trailer was enough for me to skip the series, so I can’t say how well that huge budget was used. But with a budget like that, a series needs all the help it can get.
Which brings me to my second reason that The Acolyte failed – there is no cable.
Every Star Wars series has a huge budget, but they still have something that appeals to fans and creates a spark of interest. The Mandalorian had the armor and appearance of Bobba Fett in the OG series, a baby that looked like Yoda and a well-known creator and star actor in Jon Favreau and Pedro Pascal.
The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi And Ahsoka all have direct ties to the original trilogy or prequels that immediately prick fans’ ears, even if they ultimately roll their eyes and ignore it. The Acolyte, Andor has a premise that doesn’t scream Star Wars, but still stays in that universe – which was a big point of interest for me. There were also viewing figure problemsbut the superior quality and direct link to Star Wars: Rogue One And Star Wars: A New Hope enough people watched to see confirmation of a second season.
The Acolyte is not nearly as good as Andor But because it’s set during the pristine High Republic, there’s no way it was going to blow the ratings out of the water. Add that to the massive budget, and even the Force wouldn’t be able to lift it out of the Dagobah Swamp — let alone a few seconds of (spoilers!) Yoda and Darth Plagueis in the finale.
I find your lack of faith disturbing
The irony that I haven’t seen the film and have mixed feelings about its cancellation is not lost on me, but I love it. Star Wars. I liked the first season of The Mandalorian (and enjoyed the others), I hate the prequel trilogy and I fell in love with it Andor. And I loved that Lucasfilm did something different with The AcolyteI can’t help but think that the creators learned the wrong lesson when its failure becomes a reality.
I think the right response would be to release fewer shows but increase the quality of what is produced. Keep making unique series like Andor And The Acolytebut maybe give the audience a reference point that they can relate to. The wrong lesson, and what I think is more likely, is that they will do away with unique stories and go for fan service and safe content. As a fan, I don’t want that – but a failed $180 million show is a tough experience not to be afraid of. Let’s hope Skeleton crew, which premieres on Disney Plus on December 3, does not disappoint, otherwise we might see Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen continue to make spinoffs forever.