Why Was The Acolyte Cancelled and Can It Be Saved by the Fans?

The Acolyte was cancelled by Disney+ because of high costs and low viewership, but fans are coming together to demand a second season.

What Is It?

This Star Wars series takes place at the end of the High Republic era and it follows an investigation into a shocking crime spree that pits a respected Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past. As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

Aired: Disney+, 2024, 1 Season Totaling 8 Episodes

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett

Created By: Leslye Headland

Why Was It Cancelled?

This series arrived with pretty high expectations and it did land in the Nielsen Streaming rankings for the first two weeks it was streaming. But it dropped out after that (though it made a brief reappearance the week of its finale), and overall it is the least-watched of the live-action Star Wars shows on Disney+.  It did score relatively well with critics, currently holding a 78% Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but fans of the franchise appeared to be not as happy with it seeing as it only has an 18% Audience Score.  Creator and showrunner Leslye Headland did have plans to continue to series, making the following comments when asked about the show’s future prior to the cancellation announcement:

I would say that when I pitched it, I definitely pitched it as a multi-season show. There are a lot of things at the end of this season that I think are narrative threads that are not tied up, for sure. However, I am the type of writer that is not interested in an emotional cliffhanger. I want you to feel like you’ve had a particular type of catharsis, and an emotional experience in watching those eight episodes because I like rewarding the audience with that.

But the show was quite expensive, running up a price tag of $180 million for the eight-episode first season. And apparently the streamer was not interested in keeping it going based on its subpar viewing numbers and instead chose to cut it short it after one year.

Can It Be Saved?

Based on the 18% audience score, I did not think that fans would rally together to try and save the show. But apparently that Rotten Tomatoes number was driven down by trolls who felt the show was too “woke” and does not accurately gauge how people in general feel about the show. An online petition has been put up, and that has pulled in just over 60K signatures as of this writing. That is an impressive number considering it has only been out there for a few days. Fans also have hashtags such as #RenewTheAcolyte and #SaveTheAcolyte trending on social media, and there is a campaign page with info on other ways to help the show.

Another thing they should be doing is staging watch parties to get the viewership back up, and also a drive to convince people to subscribe to Disney+ to watch the show. That will directly impact the bottom line and draw the attention of the executives at the streaming service. The chances of it moving to another venue at this point are slim seeing as Disney owns the Star Wars franchise (and they will probably own you and me pretty soon). So the focus needs to be on convincing Disney+ to greenlight a second season. And several of the levers are already in place for that, with a few others that could be added to the campaign. We have seen shows like The Expanse, Lucifer, and Manifest saved in recent years, though each of those changed venues.  It may be more of an uphill battle, but with enough effort from the fans, perhaps The Acolyte could join that list.

Where Can You Watch It?

Fortunately, Disney+ has not removed The Acolyte from streaming as a write-down like we previously saw with shows such as Willow or Paramount+’s Star Trek: Prodigy. And all episodes have been released, so the first season is available for binging. Fans should take advantage of that to get the show back in the viewership charts.

Stream The Acolyte on Disney+

Did you watch The Acolyte and would you support fan efforts to save the show? Chime in below in the comments.

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