This series showed how bad Disney can drag a once thriving franchise down the rabbit hole. This statement alone is false:
Information collected by Parrot Analytics has shown that Leslye Headland’s series is more in demand than the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi , The Book of Boba Fett , and, surprisingly, Dave Filoni’s 2023 Star Wars: Ahsoka series .
Ask someone who has followed Star Wars from inception - seen and heard what vision Lucas had for the franchise and you will quickly learn the this series fell WAY short of the mark. I would argue it was embarrassing for Lucas and Disney.
To state that is was even close to being on par with Ob-Wan series is laughable. They left a lot on the table and ran with themes that were “popular at the time”. Honestly, Disney may not be a good fit for the Star Wars that George Lucas created.
Andor (Season 2) may help right the ship some but Disney would be wise to allow Filoni to pursue his projects. There are few that get what Lucas intended and he is one of them. Star Wars was never meant to be a hip and on point cinematic experience, but rather a ground breaking delve into a place that stirs up memories of good vs evil and shows what can happen when someone puts themselves before others. Not everything from Disney needs to feel good, some just need to feel and that is what Lucas intended, heck Walt wanted the same thing, present it to your audience and let them decide. Novel concept, huh?
Lucas plainly stated, on multiple occasions, that he made Star Wars for 12 yr old boys. That’s not a dig, remember what movies were like at the time, and he’s explained again and again that he wanted to give boys the nickelodeon experience he had as a kid watching Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and the rest. Why is Ep4 the biggest mash-up of everything a boy would love? Knights, Pirates, Princesses, Wizards, Samurai, Pilots, wacky sidekicks, animals, swashbuckling adventure, sword fights, gun fights, you can go on and on. Now that everyone from then has grown up they want to “grow up” SW too, again that was Rian Johnson’s specific description of his approach to 8. They all miss that both the magic was the universal appeal and themes of the originals, and that the environment that made SW stand out then is similar to today. There’s more sci-fi now, there’s anime and so much more, but moral stories on a kids level that don’t talk down to them? That in turn aren’t just snark, and/or show the adults are fools and the children are smarter and better than them? Kids in 2025 deserve a Star Wars as much as we did as kids, and ironically it’s Disney that’s taking that away.
@Core_Ireland Agree whole heartedly! Like I said, not sure that Disney is the vehicle for Lucas’s vision.
Disney needs to allow those who understand what made Star Wars great - lead. Lucas was demanding and rightfully so - time to let those who have his philosophy take the reigns.
Exactly the point I was making - Disney needs to move away from what it thinks the audience wants and listen to what the audience actually wants.
They are 2 entirely different things. You only get so many shots at messing up a franchise and then, you actually do!
I don’t feel series got the credit it deserved, everyone expects a hype but the realisation is can’t do ALOT in 9 hours in regarding decent story telling and with the inclusion of action and special effects.
Unfortunately gone are the days we had 20+ episode episode season
People complained about having highly gay cast, or story crap or this or that … The problem is EVERYTHING is over hyped these, something can’t just be ‘good’, things have to be exceptional! With tighter restraints on the creativity
Which really annoys me because I really expect an interesting follow-up from this season . Just for it to get cancelled after one season
The Acolyte is a very good series. I know I’m not the only one that has been hungry to learn about the rise of the “Sith.” The acting was great, the storytelling was great and it had a single focus that’s easy to follow. Now we’re stuck on a cliffhanger possibility permanently. Please bring The Acolyte back, I’m hungry for more.
I especially Loved the lead actress. Awesome job.
No one liked this series because it changed so much that actual fans of Star Wars knew. Woking it up didn’t help either. You can always look at a movie that was extremely successful and ask yourself what WASN’T in it. Use that formula and you will have a successful movie. Don’t believe me? Check out the top ten movies and see how many were woke.
I actuly liked the Acolyte and I am far from woke. The problem with Disney is that they set up the anti woke crowd by making a big deal about having things like a gay female director or a black female bi lead. If they want these types of things to be looked at as normal, you dont emphasise differences you just make it look like its an everyday thing. By making a big deal about it they encourage the negativity. It can be in their bio but you dont have to make it the main focus of the show. The show should be the main focus of the publicty. Thats how Disney shoots itself in the foot.
i think we should be taking issue with the people who have a problem with diversity, not with companies who are proud to have a diverse cast & crew. also “woke” does just mean diversity, let be honest.
Everything that is used to push someone’s “loving” ideology or political agenda has been rejected across the board while the movies, series, & even games that stick to what got them here have succeeded. This series not only was used to promote someone’s ideology, it also broke canon severely more than once! The excuses used to try to disprove that only made them look worse. These studios even pay YouTubers by flying them out to get early screening, wine and dine them, & give them free swag so they’ll give the show favorable reviews! That didn’t even work! While they did this, their smear campaign against the many, many other personalities online failed as badly as this show! Fans are not stupid! It’s not hard to see who is sincere and who is not! Articles like this make you look like a wounded animal backed into a corner who knows it’s almost over. You’ve all seen the reality! The show was cancelled because fans didn’t watch it FACT! If this is the hill you’ve chosen to expire on, you’ll get what you want! Good luck with that.
I would have to say that you have delivered the facts in a very concise way. Simply stated until these company realize who drives the $$$ - which is the true fans, the ones who went to see the original Star Wars 15 times at a outdoor theater, stood in line for hours to see the following ones - these are the people who Lucas designed for these films. Not a woke agenda to force fed to the public and told you will love it. You have stated it very correctly, stick to what got you there, the fans are not stupid and will not buy the poorly written, non-cannon pet projects.
Bro it’s not happening it’s practically non cannon with how easy it is to ignore it was trash and it will stay trash get over it your not a starwars fan so f pff
Go woke. Go broke. They keep shoehorning real world identity politics into a fantastic story and it WILL fail. Disney DOES NOT LEARN. Just look at SNOW WHITE AS WE SPEAK!!!! Reading this article, they HAD to mention how the main access is “Queer”. Why??? Why is her sexual orientation of ANY concern or relative to telling a good Star Wars story??? At this point producers are idiots or plainly don’t care what the outcome is and will keep doubling down on the woke bs THE MAJORITY, ESPECIALLY Star Wars fans dont want and NEVER ASKED FOR.
Yes, People engaged with it heavily. I have no doubt about that. I am absolutely sure people have engaged with The Acolyte mote than those other shows.
Notice, they never state the engagement was 100% positive.
Even bad engagement can drive up views and other interactions.
My this metric, The Acolyte was most likely Lucasfiln/Disney’s most important property in existence, but it does mean the mouse has prioritized for volume of publicity generation over quality entertainment…
But that’s been true for a while, now that I think about it.
All I’m looking for is a good story that doesn’t destroy the stories that come before it. I don’t want overt political statements that detract from the story. And I don’t care what the cast does off screen, even if I don’t agree with it (within reason). That’s it. Nothing more.
I did like the Acolyte (mostly). And I’d like to see a second season. But the story has to come first.
Got about 3 paragraphs in and simply couldn’t. It’s been explained numerous times by people with more of a voice than I, it wasn’t slandered because of the social demonstration, cast lead, or sexual orientation of anyone associated, it was disliked because it was terrible, period. Poor writing, poor development, flat/not great acting, the scenes were dull and boring and it wrecked established lore/ cannon.
No matter how much you wish upon a star it’s not coming back. The numbers were bad and the cost was ridiculous. The audience didn’t show up and the fans didn’t like it, that’s it.
It’s sad that some people still keep trying to make this travesty of a show continue. If they had kept to established lore and canon, there would have been little problem. Sure, there would likely still be some upset about the sexuality of characters and such, but the majority of fans would have watched, and enjoyed, it. The writers, deciding that Star Wars doesn’t matter was what causes such low viewership. Then, again, Disney has been on a mission to destroy their company, and every IP they purchase, for a while.
It was a terribly written show. There was no mystery. None of the plot line made any sense. Terrible writing, story, production and sets made this show terrible. Stop injecting your narrative. Stop defending Disney…oh, but you might not be invited to anymore premieres and getting your cup cake or bag of trinkets from the mouse house
Summed up…Disney took a giant planet sized sht on star wars it will never recover from. I refuse to watch the movies with the exception of Han Solo and Rouge one. They f’d up not making a sequel to Solo even tho the actor looked nothing like Ford
The Acolyte was set up to fail, the showrunner and main star only had to shut up and let the show speak for itself.
But no, they had to run their mouths about how female it was and how better because if it, they coped flak on the same level as men would have gotten if they’d made it and harped on about how male it was, plus while doing this they spent way too much money, and aimed at an audience that didn’t exist they thought the new audience would follow them, they didn’t because that audience isn’t into Star Wars. And by attacking Fans even the toxic ones before the show even aired the first episode meant fans who would have watched felt like they weren’t wanted, and Disney allowed the verbal attacks from their people to continue, the show wasn’t horrible, it was poorly edited, did not use the popularity of the stars well at all, at least not by final edit, who knows what good work was dumped to the cutting room floor.
They crammed the entire season into about 8 episodes making what was released feel cramped and rushed, leaving those who did try to watch it or even watched it all as I did, feel like “what is that it???”
It didn’t earn a 2nd season because it’s first season was incomplete with episodes fluctuating in length, and not completing the episodic arcs and then not completing the season arc. Hedland might have envisioned the story but she is not skilled enough to create a sci-fi on the level of Star Wars and should not have been given an open wallet for the funds, No TV series should cost more than an epic feature film to make.
Even if they matched NCIS in budget per episode they could’ve made 16 episodes on the same money they spent on Acolytes 8 episode run and had enough to make 5 more. And even if they sacrifice those 5 episodes for extra set budget and effects, they’d have had more time to tell the story and make it make sense.
The cost and the arrogance of certain cast and crew is what turned people against the show.
Just make the product and shut up while people watch it. And maybe just maybe your show will be better liked.
I was looking forward to a Star Wars series that showed the Jedi Order to be corrupt and fallable–their desire for control creating the conditions for the Sith to return. Season 1 didn’t deliver but i.think it could have set the stage for something better. It’s too bad shows these days are not given enough time to develop: Star Trek Next Generation and Deep Space Nine both had pathetic first seasons, but they grew into decent, if not great, shows.
I have no problem with the show be female centric I just have a problem with awful writing littered with plot holes. One of the worst examples was the male padawan whose sole job in the show was to be wrong about everything. The Acolyte had great potential but it was just executed terribly.
This is one of the main problems with all movies and shows at the moment. The emphasis being put on including real world problems. Real world politics. People use movies and TV to escape from the real world… we do not wanna see all this woke nonsense. We don’t care the gender or nationality of a person, we just want to see some fantasy pew-pew and limbs being separated from bodies. Pretty simple. Stop trying to make things ‘real’.
It was not star wars. It was a disgrace to everything that is star wars. Disney is not the place or deserve star wars. What weird crap movies make it don’t put it under the star wars flag. You tried to put it there because they knew it would make no money and look it still didn’t. You just pissed off the people who love and spend money on it.
Comments for ‘The Acolyte’ Season 2 Explained: Canceled ‘Star Wars’ Series Deemed More Important Than Dave Filoni’s ‘Ahsoka’
This series showed how bad Disney can drag a once thriving franchise down the rabbit hole. This statement alone is false:
Information collected by Parrot Analytics has shown that Leslye Headland’s series is more in demand than the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi , The Book of Boba Fett , and, surprisingly, Dave Filoni’s 2023 Star Wars: Ahsoka series .
Ask someone who has followed Star Wars from inception - seen and heard what vision Lucas had for the franchise and you will quickly learn the this series fell WAY short of the mark. I would argue it was embarrassing for Lucas and Disney.
To state that is was even close to being on par with Ob-Wan series is laughable. They left a lot on the table and ran with themes that were “popular at the time”. Honestly, Disney may not be a good fit for the Star Wars that George Lucas created.
Andor (Season 2) may help right the ship some but Disney would be wise to allow Filoni to pursue his projects. There are few that get what Lucas intended and he is one of them. Star Wars was never meant to be a hip and on point cinematic experience, but rather a ground breaking delve into a place that stirs up memories of good vs evil and shows what can happen when someone puts themselves before others. Not everything from Disney needs to feel good, some just need to feel and that is what Lucas intended, heck Walt wanted the same thing, present it to your audience and let them decide. Novel concept, huh?
Lucas plainly stated, on multiple occasions, that he made Star Wars for 12 yr old boys. That’s not a dig, remember what movies were like at the time, and he’s explained again and again that he wanted to give boys the nickelodeon experience he had as a kid watching Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and the rest. Why is Ep4 the biggest mash-up of everything a boy would love? Knights, Pirates, Princesses, Wizards, Samurai, Pilots, wacky sidekicks, animals, swashbuckling adventure, sword fights, gun fights, you can go on and on. Now that everyone from then has grown up they want to “grow up” SW too, again that was Rian Johnson’s specific description of his approach to 8. They all miss that both the magic was the universal appeal and themes of the originals, and that the environment that made SW stand out then is similar to today. There’s more sci-fi now, there’s anime and so much more, but moral stories on a kids level that don’t talk down to them? That in turn aren’t just snark, and/or show the adults are fools and the children are smarter and better than them? Kids in 2025 deserve a Star Wars as much as we did as kids, and ironically it’s Disney that’s taking that away.
@Core_Ireland Agree whole heartedly! Like I said, not sure that Disney is the vehicle for Lucas’s vision.
Disney needs to allow those who understand what made Star Wars great - lead. Lucas was demanding and rightfully so - time to let those who have his philosophy take the reigns.
Literally nobody cares about anything that happened in this series. Stop trying to make it relevant. It’s not happening.
Exactly the point I was making - Disney needs to move away from what it thinks the audience wants and listen to what the audience actually wants.
They are 2 entirely different things. You only get so many shots at messing up a franchise and then, you actually do!
I don’t feel series got the credit it deserved, everyone expects a hype but the realisation is can’t do ALOT in 9 hours in regarding decent story telling and with the inclusion of action and special effects.
Unfortunately gone are the days we had 20+ episode episode season
People complained about having highly gay cast, or story crap or this or that … The problem is EVERYTHING is over hyped these, something can’t just be ‘good’, things have to be exceptional! With tighter restraints on the creativity
Which really annoys me because I really expect an interesting follow-up from this season . Just for it to get cancelled after one season
The Acolyte was a disaster due to the writing & canon-breaking, not the anti-woke stuff.
Sorry Lesley. The story was awful.
The power of one
The power of two
The power of click
The Acolyte is a very good series. I know I’m not the only one that has been hungry to learn about the rise of the “Sith.” The acting was great, the storytelling was great and it had a single focus that’s easy to follow. Now we’re stuck on a cliffhanger possibility permanently. Please bring The Acolyte back, I’m hungry for more.
I especially Loved the lead actress. Awesome job.
No one liked this series because it changed so much that actual fans of Star Wars knew. Woking it up didn’t help either. You can always look at a movie that was extremely successful and ask yourself what WASN’T in it. Use that formula and you will have a successful movie. Don’t believe me? Check out the top ten movies and see how many were woke.
I actuly liked the Acolyte and I am far from woke. The problem with Disney is that they set up the anti woke crowd by making a big deal about having things like a gay female director or a black female bi lead. If they want these types of things to be looked at as normal, you dont emphasise differences you just make it look like its an everyday thing. By making a big deal about it they encourage the negativity. It can be in their bio but you dont have to make it the main focus of the show. The show should be the main focus of the publicty. Thats how Disney shoots itself in the foot.
@Fiona_Clark You are going to get backlash when you go outside “cannon” - that is the real issue with Star Wars fans.
i think we should be taking issue with the people who have a problem with diversity, not with companies who are proud to have a diverse cast & crew. also “woke” does just mean diversity, let be honest.
Everything that is used to push someone’s “loving” ideology or political agenda has been rejected across the board while the movies, series, & even games that stick to what got them here have succeeded. This series not only was used to promote someone’s ideology, it also broke canon severely more than once! The excuses used to try to disprove that only made them look worse. These studios even pay YouTubers by flying them out to get early screening, wine and dine them, & give them free swag so they’ll give the show favorable reviews! That didn’t even work! While they did this, their smear campaign against the many, many other personalities online failed as badly as this show! Fans are not stupid! It’s not hard to see who is sincere and who is not! Articles like this make you look like a wounded animal backed into a corner who knows it’s almost over. You’ve all seen the reality! The show was cancelled because fans didn’t watch it FACT! If this is the hill you’ve chosen to expire on, you’ll get what you want! Good luck with that.
I would have to say that you have delivered the facts in a very concise way. Simply stated until these company realize who drives the $$$ - which is the true fans, the ones who went to see the original Star Wars 15 times at a outdoor theater, stood in line for hours to see the following ones - these are the people who Lucas designed for these films. Not a woke agenda to force fed to the public and told you will love it. You have stated it very correctly, stick to what got you there, the fans are not stupid and will not buy the poorly written, non-cannon pet projects.
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Bro it’s not happening it’s practically non cannon with how easy it is to ignore it was trash and it will stay trash get over it your not a starwars fan so f pff
Lynx
Go woke. Go broke. They keep shoehorning real world identity politics into a fantastic story and it WILL fail. Disney DOES NOT LEARN. Just look at SNOW WHITE AS WE SPEAK!!!! Reading this article, they HAD to mention how the main access is “Queer”. Why??? Why is her sexual orientation of ANY concern or relative to telling a good Star Wars story??? At this point producers are idiots or plainly don’t care what the outcome is and will keep doubling down on the woke bs THE MAJORITY, ESPECIALLY Star Wars fans dont want and NEVER ASKED FOR.
WheeledWarriorJayce
Yes, People engaged with it heavily. I have no doubt about that. I am absolutely sure people have engaged with The Acolyte mote than those other shows.
Notice, they never state the engagement was 100% positive.
Even bad engagement can drive up views and other interactions.
My this metric, The Acolyte was most likely Lucasfiln/Disney’s most important property in existence, but it does mean the mouse has prioritized for volume of publicity generation over quality entertainment…
But that’s been true for a while, now that I think about it.
AlphaZero4
All I’m looking for is a good story that doesn’t destroy the stories that come before it. I don’t want overt political statements that detract from the story. And I don’t care what the cast does off screen, even if I don’t agree with it (within reason). That’s it. Nothing more.
I did like the Acolyte (mostly). And I’d like to see a second season. But the story has to come first.
Matt
You my friend can’t be serious.
It’s the worst storytelling, the whole thing is about pushing an agenda that is a failed culture.
BT
Got about 3 paragraphs in and simply couldn’t. It’s been explained numerous times by people with more of a voice than I, it wasn’t slandered because of the social demonstration, cast lead, or sexual orientation of anyone associated, it was disliked because it was terrible, period. Poor writing, poor development, flat/not great acting, the scenes were dull and boring and it wrecked established lore/ cannon.
No matter how much you wish upon a star it’s not coming back. The numbers were bad and the cost was ridiculous. The audience didn’t show up and the fans didn’t like it, that’s it.
MC
It’s sad that some people still keep trying to make this travesty of a show continue. If they had kept to established lore and canon, there would have been little problem. Sure, there would likely still be some upset about the sexuality of characters and such, but the majority of fans would have watched, and enjoyed, it. The writers, deciding that Star Wars doesn’t matter was what causes such low viewership. Then, again, Disney has been on a mission to destroy their company, and every IP they purchase, for a while.
Andrew
It was a terribly written show. There was no mystery. None of the plot line made any sense. Terrible writing, story, production and sets made this show terrible. Stop injecting your narrative. Stop defending Disney…oh, but you might not be invited to anymore premieres and getting your cup cake or bag of trinkets from the mouse house
Frabn
“More important”
Just the notion of this flop trash being deemed “important” actually caused me to laugh out loud. I’m actually snickering still as I write this
Ion
Summed up…Disney took a giant planet sized sht on star wars it will never recover from. I refuse to watch the movies with the exception of Han Solo and Rouge one. They f’d up not making a sequel to Solo even tho the actor looked nothing like Ford
Rodger
The Acolyte was set up to fail, the showrunner and main star only had to shut up and let the show speak for itself.
But no, they had to run their mouths about how female it was and how better because if it, they coped flak on the same level as men would have gotten if they’d made it and harped on about how male it was, plus while doing this they spent way too much money, and aimed at an audience that didn’t exist they thought the new audience would follow them, they didn’t because that audience isn’t into Star Wars. And by attacking Fans even the toxic ones before the show even aired the first episode meant fans who would have watched felt like they weren’t wanted, and Disney allowed the verbal attacks from their people to continue, the show wasn’t horrible, it was poorly edited, did not use the popularity of the stars well at all, at least not by final edit, who knows what good work was dumped to the cutting room floor.
They crammed the entire season into about 8 episodes making what was released feel cramped and rushed, leaving those who did try to watch it or even watched it all as I did, feel like “what is that it???”
It didn’t earn a 2nd season because it’s first season was incomplete with episodes fluctuating in length, and not completing the episodic arcs and then not completing the season arc. Hedland might have envisioned the story but she is not skilled enough to create a sci-fi on the level of Star Wars and should not have been given an open wallet for the funds, No TV series should cost more than an epic feature film to make.
Even if they matched NCIS in budget per episode they could’ve made 16 episodes on the same money they spent on Acolytes 8 episode run and had enough to make 5 more. And even if they sacrifice those 5 episodes for extra set budget and effects, they’d have had more time to tell the story and make it make sense.
The cost and the arrogance of certain cast and crew is what turned people against the show.
Just make the product and shut up while people watch it. And maybe just maybe your show will be better liked.
Bubbafett
I was looking forward to a Star Wars series that showed the Jedi Order to be corrupt and fallable–their desire for control creating the conditions for the Sith to return. Season 1 didn’t deliver but i.think it could have set the stage for something better. It’s too bad shows these days are not given enough time to develop: Star Trek Next Generation and Deep Space Nine both had pathetic first seasons, but they grew into decent, if not great, shows.
Bad foot
The show was trash even if you ignore the woke.
Si
I have no problem with the show be female centric I just have a problem with awful writing littered with plot holes. One of the worst examples was the male padawan whose sole job in the show was to be wrong about everything. The Acolyte had great potential but it was just executed terribly.
Ben
This is one of the main problems with all movies and shows at the moment. The emphasis being put on including real world problems. Real world politics. People use movies and TV to escape from the real world… we do not wanna see all this woke nonsense. We don’t care the gender or nationality of a person, we just want to see some fantasy pew-pew and limbs being separated from bodies. Pretty simple. Stop trying to make things ‘real’.
Old disney
It was not star wars. It was a disgrace to everything that is star wars. Disney is not the place or deserve star wars. What weird crap movies make it don’t put it under the star wars flag. You tried to put it there because they knew it would make no money and look it still didn’t. You just pissed off the people who love and spend money on it.
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