Starlight Beacon: The Acolyte In Media

[tv echo]

The Acolyte | The Stunts of The Acolyte | Disney+
Star Wars   Aug 6, 2024

[AnimeMania]

‘The Acolyte’ Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+’s ‘Star Wars’ Series

[Mr. Sparkle]

[baldryanr]

I can feel a great disturbance in the Force.  As if scores of irate fanboys are powering up their webcams and getting ready to gloat about how woke goes broke.

[Raja]

1 minute ago, baldryanr said:

I can feel a great disturbance in the Force.  As if scores of irate fanboys are powering up their webcams and getting ready to gloat about how woke goes broke.

This one was like newspaper pre written obituaries. They just have to add the dateline and upload

[DoctorAtomic]

I'm disappointed. It had some issues, but being on streaming I figured another season was a given. 

How was it woke though? 

[Raja]

10 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I'm disappointed. It had some issues, but being on streaming I figured another season was a given. 

How was it woke though? 

I guess since all the good guys were female humans.

In any case I don't think it was the went woke go broke brigade that killed the show alone.  They picked up valuable allies from the Church of Jedi fundamentalist for whom the Jedis are the heroes of the Star Wars that they want to watch.

[DoctorAtomic]

Star Wars was always woke. Leia was getting all up on Kenobi and telling off Tarkin within the first half hour of the entire franchise. Or is that not canon anymore because she was literally a teenager at the time? 

Call them what you want, but you look back in history going a long way, most of conflict and strife in the world is dudeflakes and incels throwing a tantrum because they're not getting the girls they think they're entitled to. 

[Morrigan2575]

16 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

‘The Acolyte’ Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+’s ‘Star Wars’ Series

Not surprised, it was extremely expensive and, one of the lowest viewership of Star Wars shows.  

We're not getting another season of Boba Fett nor Obi Wan and, they both did better in the ratings than The Acolyte. 

Not sure on Andor, might be that it was always planned as a limited series like Loki or they were able to offset S2 costs.

Personally I found this show boring with moments of annoyance over the stupidity/writing.  I will say, I did like the action scenes I thought the hand to hand/martial arts fighting to be the only positive.

 

[Raja]

13 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Not surprised, it was extremely expensive and, one of the lowest viewership of Star Wars shows.  

We're not getting another season of Boba Fett nor Obi Wan and, they both did better in the ratings than The Acolyte. 

Not sure on Andor, might be that it was always planned as a limited series like Loki or they were able to offset S2 costs.

Personally I found this show boring with moments of annoyance over the stupidity/writing.  I will say, I did like the action scenes I thought the hand to hand/martial arts fighting to be the only positive.

 

Andor was the lowest rated but it got a prestigious Star Wars tag and aclaim from the Star Wars nerds. And that's the  selling point as a franchise loss leader.

[baldryanr]

34 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Personally I found this show boring with moments of annoyance over the stupidity/writing.  I will say, I did like the action scenes I thought the hand to hand/martial arts fighting to be the only positive.

Manny Jacinto did a good job - I wish he had been the main character.  The rest were trying their best but couldn't rise above the material.

[Morrigan2575]

1 hour ago, baldryanr said:

Manny Jacinto did a good job - I wish he had been the main character.  The rest were trying their best but couldn't rise above the material.

It's hard because I kept seeing Jason (his character on The Good Place) even after he dropped the goofy act.

I will say I called him being the secret not-sith master back in Episode 2. I remember thinking it would be hilarious if he was the "master" because of the whole Darth Jar Jar fan theory.

[MissLucas]

I've seen shows with lots of issues in their first season do a surprising pivot in their sophomore season. I was wondering if this show could pull it off but I'm not surprised it did not get the chance. Too many things went wrong for the TPTB to throw money at this particular show. 

[Raja]

2 minutes ago, MissLucas said:

I've seen shows with lots of issues in their first season do a surprising pivot in their sophomore season. I was wondering if this show could pull it off but I'm not surprised it did not get the chance. Too many things went wrong for the TPTB to throw money at this particular show. 

At this moment the MCU team has made a hard change of course. The Star Wars team  seems to be still in damn the torpedoes full speed ahead mode.

[Ziggy]

On 8/19/2024 at 9:55 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I'm disappointed. It had some issues, but being on streaming I figured another season was a given.

Yes!

It was a very interesting premise, and I really wanted to see where they were going with it.  I wish the pacing had been a little better, and I suppose the season was a little too much set up.

I thought Ahsoka was too much set up, as well, but it's getting a 2nd season.  Maybe having characters that are already beloved made the difference.

[Grimnar]

18 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Yes!

It was a very interesting premise, and I really wanted to see where they were going with it.  I wish the pacing had been a little better, and I suppose the season was a little too much set up.

I thought Ahsoka was too much set up, as well, but it's getting a 2nd season.  Maybe having characters that are already beloved made the difference.

The Acolyte should cost 180 milions and last episode had 600K lower people watching than Andor last episode according to article I saw. So with how expensive it was and in week 4 it was outside of top 10 on Disney+, it isn't so surprising that it was canceled.

And to be honest, the show was at best mediocre. The premise was good but writting, acting in some cases, pacing, editing were poor.

I think it is quite telling that from comments I saw, people were most  dissapointed that they will not get more Darth Plaguies, 5 seconds cameo character, instead of Mae and Osha, main characters.

 

[Sarah 103]

On 8/19/2024 at 10:55 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

How was it woke though? 

The leads were a black women. A show/movie can have a lead who is a white woman and it is not woke. There was a lesbian couple. Having LGBTQ characters, even if they are not the lead, makes a show woke. However, I am not completely sure how if this is how it works.

On 8/21/2024 at 2:18 PM, Grimnar said:

And to be honest, the show was at best mediocre. The premise was good but writting, acting in some cases, pacing, editing were poor.

The show failed for all of the reasons above that you described. It had nothing to do with "woke" 

[DoctorAtomic]

I was being facetious. It's 'woke' if the incels screech loud enough. That's why. 

I don't think it was a big deal that the show was mid. I thought there was enough there to warrant a second season. I would have thought the showrunner might have been told this is your last season if you don't up the game. 

[Raja]

30 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I was being facetious. It's 'woke' if the incels screech loud enough. That's why. 

I don't think it was a big deal that the show was mid. I thought there was enough there to warrant a second season. I would have thought the showrunner might have been told this is your last season if you don't up the game. 

Enough there as in stories of these characters? But in doing so Disney runs the risk of further angering the Church of Jedi.

Over at Paramount the Church of the Great Bird had aged past the target demographic group since the Kelvin universe had already surplanted real Star Trek so they were able to get in more seasons with a smaller amount of critical pressure from the gatekeepers.

[Sarah 103]

44 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't think it was a big deal that the show was mid. I thought there was enough there to warrant a second season. I would have thought the showrunner might have been told this is your last season if you don't up the game. 

A show being mid isn't necessarily a huge problem, but if the show is insanely expensive and isn't a major hit with critics or audiences then I can understand why Disney+ may not have wanted to spend an insane amount of money for something that is not generating rewards (in terms of critical praise or viewership numbers or another form of positive engagement).  

[DoctorAtomic]

What's the viewership though? 

Making shows and movies of these IP, you can't worry about the incel faction. The Wheel of Time has the same problem. Lord of the Rings. Even Galactica way back. If you're making a show based on the social media response, then you don't have a show. Not everything can be Game of Thrones out the box, and even then they had issues too. 

I wouldn't antagonize fans either. Maybe marketing needs to be more savvy. 

I mean it's Disney ffs. Is the show that expensive overall? 

[Raja]

23 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

What's the viewership though? 

Making shows and movies of these IP, you can't worry about the incel faction. The Wheel of Time has the same problem. Lord of the Rings. Even Galactica way back. If you're making a show based on the social media response, then you don't have a show. Not everything can be Game of Thrones out the box, and even then they had issues too. 

I wouldn't antagonize fans either. Maybe marketing needs to be more savvy. 

I mean it's Disney ffs. Is the show that expensive overall? 

Well if the show drives away more old Star Wars fans than it picks up in subscribers for the present Star Wars then its not worth it even if given to Disney for free.

[DoctorAtomic]

What's the numbers on that then? I haven't seen anything.

[Raja]

9 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

What's the numbers on that then? I haven't seen anything.

I guess Disney considers numbers proprietary. Or share holders watching money go away instead of grabbing a nerd monopoly said enough.

[DoctorAtomic]

The flip side of that is, why bother getting invested in new shows? 

[Raja]

Just now, DoctorAtomic said:

The flip side of that is, why bother getting invested in new shows? 

One model is the miniseries. Our friends across the Atlantic even use the term series while Americans think in seasons. If a full story is told then no loss. 

In a big franchise case a side story like every other Star Wars movie is planned to be works. Unless your needs don't think that the first season represents "real" Star Wars 

[DoctorAtomic]

I liked the show. I would have watched a second season. I'm not seeing what the metrics are that warranted cancellation beyond incels screeching on social media and people saying it cost a lot. It needed improving, but was easily fixable. Why am I going to bother to check out anything new if there's no indication it's going to survive? So just wait until the season is over and then decide. 

 

[Raja]

16 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I liked the show. I would have watched a second season. I'm not seeing what the metrics are that warranted cancellation beyond incels screeching on social media and people saying it cost a lot. It needed improving, but was easily fixable. Why am I going to bother to check out anything new if there's no indication it's going to survive? So just wait until the season is over and then decide. 

 

Incels are not the only Disney Star Wars faction. I'm a Star Trek fan and we had the same battles of traditionalist versus the new producers fight. In Star Wars I've seen the real fandom fights since the third movie and the Ewoks doing what the rebels couldn't do.

The "Disney Star Wars" started with the prequel movies a generation ago.

That many use "incel" as an updated term for the way "nerds" was is funny to me

[DoctorAtomic]

Incel != Nerd

[Raja]

25 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I liked the show. I would have watched a second season. I'm not seeing what the metrics are that warranted cancellation beyond incels screeching on social media and people saying it cost a lot. It needed improving, but was easily fixable. Why am I going to bother to check out anything new if there's no indication it's going to survive? So just wait until the season is over and then decide. 

 

Today's short seasons and streaming produce their full season before series premiere. It's not the days when 4 out of 23 get made when the network pulls the plug anymore. Shogun told their story in a few hours a Star Wars prequel story should also be able to tell their full story.

Just now, DoctorAtomic said:

Incel != Nerd

Revenge of the Nerds

[Morrigan2575]

6 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

What's the numbers on that then? I haven't seen anything.

Numbers of what? We know the cost $ $180M for 8 30-minute episodes, roughly $23M/episode.  It had the 2nd lowest average viewership, fell out of the Neilson Top 10 after episode 3, and had the lowest rated finale of all the shows. 

Edited August 27 by Morrigan2575

[DoctorAtomic]

Nevermind. I think there's two different conversations going on. 

Edited August 27 by DoctorAtomic

[shrewd.buddha]

There are several articles that explain the straightforward financial decision to cancel:
The Very Obvious Reason Disney Canceled ‘The Acolyte’ — It Wasn’t ‘Toxic Dudebros’
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2024/08/23/the-very-obvious-reason-disney-canceled-the-acolyte---it-wasnt-toxic-dudebros/#:~:text=The show was far too expensive and did not receive,acclaim and widespread fan support.

However, cancelling the show also shut down an entire cottage industry devoted to creating online outrage content. 
And the disappointing thing about that is almost any legitimate criticisms related to the writing, production or handling of the Star Wars lore gets lumped into "hater" rants.

With regards to marketing - I am surprised at this point that Disney has not established some behind-the-scenes guidelines for actors giving interviews. Some seem intent on kicking hornet's nests - and the results have not seemed to benefit their project.

[Grimnar]

52 minutes ago, shrewd.buddha said:

With regards to marketing - I am surprised at this point that Disney has not established some behind-the-scenes guidelines for actors giving interviews. Some seem intent on kicking hornet's nests - and the results have not seemed to benefit their project.

I think guidelines will not help. I mean if you are not aware that some of videos/posts will come across as baiting fans then guidelines will not help.

[baldryanr]

21 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

However, cancelling the show also shut down an entire cottage industry devoted to creating online outrage content. 

They'll be fine - they're getting ready to eviscerate Rings of Power and will happily go to town on upcoming MCU projects.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, baldryanr said:

They'll be fine - they're getting ready to eviscerate Rings of Power and will happily go to town on upcoming MCU projects.

I think that when you are running a paid subscription service and not a target a demographic for the advertisers service,  has changed who you should be making your shows for.

When you buy the rights to the shows of the Nerds and then produce content aimed  to other audiences you run into problems. You are trying to build a new audience with the IP name that drew in the nerds.

And when the Nerds are upset they don't produce the free marketing creating   the excitement  that the general audience picks up upon. Although Deadpool & Wolverine success and Daredevil: Born Again being pulled to reboot on the fly suggest a MCU reboot they will probably have a hard 2025 coming before the course corrected movies show up in 2026.

Edited August 28 by Raja

[MissLucas]

23 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

However, cancelling the show also shut down an entire cottage industry devoted to creating online outrage content. 
And the disappointing thing about that is almost any legitimate criticisms related to the writing, production or handling of the Star Wars lore gets lumped into "hater" rants.

As others have pointed out the Rings of Power and the live action Snow White movie (to name just the two top targets among many) will keep the rage baiters busy.

The second point is more concerning and has caused some absurd situations - for example a content creator losing subscribers because they were not critical enough of the show and then losing subscribers because their criticism had apparently caused its cancellation 🤷‍♀️

I wonder if the show could have survived had it aired before the other spin-offs (especially Bobba Fett). Over saturation of the market combined with the many other issues probably sealed its fate.

I wasn't a fan but I thought it could have been salvaged by a good second season.

[Grimnar]

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

I wonder if the show could have survived had it aired before the other spin-offs (especially Bobba Fett). Over saturation of the market combined with the many other issues probably sealed its fate.

I wasn't a fan but I thought it could have been salvaged by a good second season.

I don't think that it would help if it would aired before Boba Fett. Boba Fett and Kenobi shows were about popular characters but both were not good shows(I think Kenobi is still worst show even when Obi-Wan is mine favourite character from SW). Acolyte just didn't interest many people(show wasn't able even maintain numbers from first week and at week 4, it was outside of top 10 new shows) and due to how expensive it was, it was cancelled(many shows were cancelled after/during first season or after pilot episode due to low numbers.).

I think the show has bad marketing in that at first it was promoted as show about Sith, then as show where Republic/Jedi are at peak of their glory/power and then as murder mystery but at same time it didn't good job at any of these 3 points. There wasn't much about Sith, High Republic era didn't feel significantly different from prequel era(at least, if you don't count force-fu) and murder mystery wasn't much mystery.

[Sarah 103]

4 hours ago, MissLucas said:

I wonder if the show could have survived had it aired before the other spin-offs (especially Bobba Fett). Over saturation of the market combined with the many other issues probably sealed its fate.

I don't think so. It still would have had many of the same problems, like poor writing. The issues with the show would have been the same no matter when it was released.

1 hour ago, Grimnar said:

I think the show has bad marketing in that at first it was promoted as show about Sith, then as show where Republic/Jedi are at peak of their glory/power and then as murder mystery but at same time it didn't good job at any of these 3 points. There wasn't much about Sith, High Republic era didn't feel significantly different from prequel era(at least, if you don't count force-fu) and murder mystery wasn't much mystery.

I think the problem wasn't so much bad marketing as the show was overstuffed and was trying to do too much/be too much. There were multiple good ideas for a series within this, but the creative team needed to pick one and go with that/focus on that instead of doing all three. 

Option 1: Someone is killing Jedi and a team of Jedi is investigating the murders. It's a murder mystery/conspiracy thriller. 

Option 2: A team of Jedi did something awful over a decade before and now someone is looking into it/investigating. It's a conspiracy/political thriller

Option 3: There are rumors that a Sith/dark side user is causing problems/doing evil things and the Jedi have to find the dark side user before it's too late. It's an action/adventure series. 

[Ilovepie]

On 8/28/2024 at 9:38 AM, Grimnar said:

I think the show has bad marketing in that at first it was promoted as show about Sith, then as show where Republic/Jedi are at peak of their glory/power and then as murder mystery but at same time it didn't good job at any of these 3 points. There wasn't much about Sith, High Republic era didn't feel significantly different from prequel era(at least, if you don't count force-fu) and murder mystery wasn't much mystery.

That's not bad marketing, that's bad writing and pacing. This show had a mammoth budget and only six episodes. The whole concept was flawed. The show should have been about the Sith and his accolyte. Period. Three flashback episodes, some of which covered the exact same plot was not a good idea at all. It just needed to be much more focused and tighter. Add in poor acting from the lead (times two!) and the whole thing stinks. I think there could have been a good show somewhere in this, but as it was presented, it got what it deserved.

[Sarah 103]

18 minutes ago, Ilovepie said:

That's not bad marketing, that's bad writing and pacing. This show had a mammoth budget and only six episodes. The whole concept was flawed. The show should have been about the Sith and his accolyte. Period. 

A show about Sith training an acolyte, trying to avoid detection from the Jedi, and either keeping it hidden from a Sith Lord or training the acolyte with the permission of a Sith Lord sounds like a much better series than the one we actually had. I'm picturing sort of a mission of the week type structure, with each mission furthering some larger plan/plot of the Sith. 

18 minutes ago, Ilovepie said:

Three flashback episodes, some of which covered the exact same plot was not a good idea at all. 

I kind of see what they were trying to do, in terms of showing it from different points of view with more information, but it didn't work. I think part of the problem was that they had a limited amount of time to tell the story (which I don't fully understand because it's streaming), so the repetition was not needed. We didn't need to see everything as many times as we did. Pick-up from the last familiar moment to anchor us and in time and then show us the event again from a different perspective/with more information. This also connects to the problem of the series being a bit of a narrative mess trying to tell far too many stories at once and not telling any of them that well. 

18 minutes ago, Ilovepie said:

Add in poor acting from the lead (times two!) and the whole thing stinks. I think there could have been a good show somewhere in this, but as it was presented, it got what it deserved.

I'm not sure if the problem was the acting or the material given to the actors. An actor can only do so much with the material they are given.

Overall, I totally agree with you. There was the potential/material for a decent to great series but it was not what was actually produced or aired.  

[Ilovepie]

21 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

I think part of the problem was that they had a limited amount of time to tell the story (which I don't fully understand because it's streaming), so the repetition was not needed. We didn't need to see everything as many times as we did.

This. I think the plot should have just been linear. No flashbacks. And what was Quimir's story? I guess we'll never know.

21 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

I'm not sure if the problem was the acting or the material given to the actors. An actor can only do so much with the material they are given.

This is true, but to me Amandla Stenberg was the weak link. There are memes floating around the internet of all her different emotions but one facial expression and I have to agree. And to have her playing two characters? Ooof. This show would have been so much better if Manny Jacinto had been the main character from the get go.

[Sarah 103]

8 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

This. I think the plot should have just been linear. No flashbacks. And what was Quimir's story? I guess we'll never know.

Would you have kept the plot line about Mae and Osha as kids and then shown the entire story/event in the first episode or would you have removed that plot line  and focused the series on something else? What I keep going back to is they were trying to cram 3 different series into 8 roughly 30-40 minute episodes and it did not work at all. 

Part of the reason the first season of Andor worked (and there are so many reasons this series worked) is that you could break up the series into chunks of roughly 3-4 episodes that told a cohesive story and then moved on to the next adventure. 

With The Acolyte, it felt like it took them 8 episodes to figure out what the series was and where they wanted to go with it, which is fine if you have 12 episodes and can tell/wrap up the story in the remaining 4 episodes, but it's a major problem if the entire season is only 8 episodes.

Edited September 5 by Sarah 103

[ICantDoThatDave]

On 8/26/2024 at 4:48 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Incel != Nerd

It is though.  It's used in the exact same connotation - a dork who lives in his mom's basement & can't get a date.  It's used in the same dismissive way "nerd" was used in the past, to imply the person is a loser & so can be dismissed.

Consider the following two quotes...

Quote

I'm not seeing what the metrics are that warranted cancellation beyond incels screeching on social media and people saying it cost a lot.

Quote

I'm not seeing what the metrics are that warranted cancellation beyond nerds screeching on social media and people saying it cost a lot.

They convey the same meaning.  Same bullies, new terms.

[Ilovepie]

On 9/4/2024 at 8:47 PM, Sarah 103 said:

Would you have kept the plot line about Mae and Osha as kids and then shown the entire story/event in the first episode or would you have removed that plot line  and focused the series on something else? What I keep going back to is they were trying to cram 3 different series into 8 roughly 30-40 minute episodes and it did not work at all. 

Yeah it was absolutely too many plots. People were so hyped for a five second shot of Darth Plagueis and Yoda - why didn't they make the show about him and his acolyte (Qimir) and a young yoda?  Even the show we got I still think the twin plot was horrible and focused on the wrong character(s).

[Raja]

2 hours ago, ICantDoThatDave said:

It is though.  It's used in the exact same connotation - a dork who lives in his mom's basement & can't get a date.  It's used in the same dismissive way "nerd" was used in the past, to imply the person is a loser & so can be dismissed.

Consider the following two quotes...

They convey the same meaning.  Same bullies, new terms.

The problem being that streaming is not selling the right eyeballs to advertising firms which support the show. Streaming sells to the nerds who bought the toys and books which caught the eyes of investors to get money out of the franchise. Without the nerds keeping the IP in the businessman's eye Star Wars is just another 70s movie 

[Sarah 103]

On 9/6/2024 at 2:15 PM, Ilovepie said:

Yeah it was absolutely too many plots. People were so hyped for a five second shot of Darth Plagueis and Yoda - why didn't they make the show about him and his acolyte (Qimir) and a young yoda?  Even the show we got I still think the twin plot was horrible and focused on the wrong character(s).

This version could have been a show that worked, but I think you need a third dark side user because otherwise it's master and apprentice, and there isn't an acolyte. A series about Plagueis, Qimir, and an acolyte and on the other side you have a team of Jedi trying to track them down/capture them. Yoda and the rest of the Jedi council are a form of mission control back at HQ. 

I agree with you about the twin plot. Every time I try to rework the show in my head and come up with a better version, the twin plot is never part of it. 

[magdalene]

On 8/28/2024 at 6:38 AM, MissLucas said:

As others have pointed out the Rings of Power and the live action Snow White movie (to name just the two top targets among many) will keep the rage baiters busy.

The second point is more concerning and has caused some absurd situations - for example a content creator losing subscribers because they were not critical enough of the show and then losing subscribers because their criticism had apparently caused its cancellation 🤷‍♀️

I wonder if the show could have survived had it aired before the other spin-offs (especially Bobba Fett). Over saturation of the market combined with the many other issues probably sealed its fate.

I wasn't a fan but I thought it could have been salvaged by a good second season.

I couldn't get into the Acolyte so I stopped watching. That's what I do when I don't like something. It didn't fulfill my Star Wars watching criteria:  You have to give me Grogu or be called "Andor".

I wish the online hate bros and incels would stop at not watching something they hate. No such luck, when they hate they want to destroy and when you dare to like something they hate they want to destroy you.

The Rings of Power show hate is just mind boggling. I enjoy the show and I hope Amazon gives it the planned 5 seasons just to spite the haters,heh.

Right now the hate industry is having a go at Agatha, it dares to have lesbians in it.  Which are more females who don't want to have sex with incels, in addition to straight women.

[tv echo]

Is Disney Bad at Star Wars? An Analysis
By James Hibberd   October 3, 2024
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/star-wars-disney-analysis-ratings-box-office-1236011620/ 

Quote

—2024’s The Acolyte from creator Leslye Headland. The series was set 100 years before The Phantom Menace and had franchise’s most diverse cast along with several female leads. The New York Times revealed the eight-episode series cost $180 million (only $10 million less than Dune: Part Two).

The Acolyte received largely positive critic reviews (78 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and sparked a raging culture war battle that once again exposed the ugly side of online fandom. The Acolyte’s backlash and criticism is difficult to parse as many fans detail their creative objections to the show’s storytelling and its bold take on Jedi lore — “just because we didn’t like this doesn’t mean we’re racist,” basically. Some other Acolyte bashers were, well, clearly racist.

The Acolyte’s premiere ratings were the lowest to date for a live-action Star Wars series launch (488 million minutes, according to Nielsen’s U.S. streaming figures). Then the show’s ratings sunk further, with The Acolyte dropping out of Nielsen’s Top 10 entirely for several weeks (not typical for a Star Wars show). It was impossible for Disney to spin this one as a concluded story — the season ended on a cliffhanger — but The Acolyte is not getting a season two. The cancellation has been portrayed by some defenders as baffling, even conspiratorial, but the show’s ratings, trend and reception point to a pragmatic decision on the studio’s part.

Edited October 5 by tv echo

[KeithJ]

On 10/5/2024 at 8:20 AM, tv echo said:

Is Disney Bad at Star Wars? An Analysis
By James Hibberd   October 3, 2024
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/star-wars-disney-analysis-ratings-box-office-1236011620/ 

When you start pushing agendas over storytelling, yes, you are bad at Star Wars.