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'The Acolyte' Getting Canceled Is Another 'Win' for Toxic Fans

By Mike Redmond | TV | August 20, 2024 |

By Mike Redmond | TV | August 20, 2024 |

the-acolyte-manny-jacinto-stranger.jpg

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Star Wars delivered a bold new entry that asked tough questions about the franchise, only for toxic fans to freak the hell out, make a lot of noise, and get what they think they want. We watched it happen with The Last Jedi, leading to the milquetoast turd known as The Rise of Skywalker, and now, history is repeating itself with The Acolyte.

On Monday night, Lucasfilm officially confirmed that Season 2 is dead in the water, making The Acolyte the first Star Wars — and Marvel series — to get canceled on Disney+. Without getting too in the weeds here, Marvel had a back door to avoid making these announcements by billing its shows as miniseries, but The Acolyte was very clearly supposed to have a multi-season arc. The decision not to renew makes it the first major cancellation of a powerhouse property on Disney+ and a harbinger of the belt-tightening to come. But at least no one is speaking on background and already blaming Amandla Stenberg for clapping back at racists. (You know where this is going, right?)

Via THR:

Also in June, star Amandla Stenberg fired back at racist backlash with an original song on social media.

“It was an easy target,” said one source of the back-and-forth’s connection to the show’s cancellation. “And it hurt the public perception of the show.”

Hopefully, whoever slung that sh*t is already out the door because there was no reason to muddy the water with that nonsense. Why even do that? As you saw with my recaps, I unabashedly loved The Acolyte. It was a breath of fresh air after watching The Mandoverse turn into a bland vehicle for porting cartoon characters into live-action with extremely middling results. That said, I freebase entertainment news 24/7, so I know the numbers for The Acolyte were not there. When the ratings didn’t see an Episode 5 bounce, which was a delicious piece of Star Wars that I will forever cherish watching with my son as it melted our faces off, that was the ball game.

Unfortunately, we’ve hit the art as commerce section of our tale. I’m not beholden to shareholders or however businesses work, so it’s easy for me to say, “Hey, Disney, another $180 mil, please!” That’s a hard sale to make even with the numbers to back it up. As we speak, there’s a bloodletting across the industry as studios pull back on spending after flushing money down the streaming drain. That’s especially true with Disney, which came very close to milking Marvel to death by releasing too many shows. The studio is pivoting back to theatrical releases, which we’re already seeing with The Mandalorian & Grogu. I could talk forever about that decision, but we’re losing the thread here.

There is, however, an argument to be made that Disney could strengthen Star Wars by continuing The Acolyte story and giving it a longer runway to bring in new fans. The show offered a complex look at the Jedi, and despite being set 100 years before The Prequel Trilogy, it laid some neat groundwork into how the space wizards went from gilded protectors to Palpatine building the Empire right in front of their stupid faces.

Most importantly, The Acolyte gave us Manny Jacinto’s The Stranger, who is easily the most compelling character this franchise has ever seen. Not only that, but he was smacked up against Lee Jung-jae’s tortured Sol. I hope to God people continue to discover this gem of a story because their performances were incredible to watch.

I mentioned watching The Acolyte with my son, and he went into this show not expecting much. He was immediately captivated by Sol, and The Stranger lit his face on fire with awesome. It’s the most excited he’s been about Star Wars in a long time, so he was absolutely crushed by the cancellation news. Leslye Headland brought a much-needed jolt of electricity and intrigue to a galaxy far, far away, and she should be very proud.

So what happens next? Best case scenario, the story and/or characters will continue in the novels. It would be salt in the wound if Lucasfilm completely erased The Acolyte from canon, but at this point, who the hell knows? In the meantime, Star Wars is seemingly content with course-correcting back to inert action figure showcases and trying to squeeze more money off its merchandising golden goose, who’s about to be half a decade old. But the little green guy isn’t a yucky girl, so he gets a movie even though the numbers for the wet fart known as The Mandalorian Season 3 took a nose dive. More like Nepo Baby Yoda, amirite?

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)