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Credit: DisneyThe infamously temperamental Star Wars fandom has hit The Acolyte hard, and it seems to have spooked Lucasfilm into quietly moving away from the Leslye Headland-created series.
Since purchasing Lucasfilm and all its incredibly valuable IP from founder George Lucas in 2012, The Walt Disney Company has found its major successes in the Star Wars franchise. While Indiana Jones flamed out with one last Harrison Ford adventure that ended up costing the Mouse over $100 million and the one season of the Willow sequel series that got made has been scrubbed from Disney+, Star Wars has been doing…okay.
The sequel trilogy of films starring Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver were massive box office blockbusters, but the movies also cost gargantuan amounts of money and received a descendingly poor reception from both audiences and critics.
Disney+ kicked off its wave of Star Wars streaming TV series with a strong showing from The Mandalorian, but viewership has consistently dropped since the show abandoned its early premise of gritty bounty-hunting adventures and turned into a backdoor pilot machine for Clone Wars characters.
Related: Disney Confirms ‘The Acolyte’ Replacement, New ‘Star Wars’ Show Will Air on Disney+
The Acolyte is the most recent of the Disney+ shows and is currently rated as the single worst Star Wars project ever by audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. That number has to be taken with a heaping scoop of salt, especially considering the largely positive critical reception to the show, which likely reflects Star Wars fandom’s long tradition of review-bombing projects that highlight female characters and POC actors too much.
But even if that is the case, it is a statement of fact that Lucasfilm and Disney have not announced The Acolyte Season 2 yet, with only one episode remaining and creator Leslye Headland openly discussing her ideas for the continuing story.
Although hate-watching is as good as any other kind when it comes to audience scores, Lucasfilm seems spooked by the intensely negative reception and is quietly moving forward with a new show before renewing The Acolyte.
According to a new post on Disney Careers, Lucasfilm is hiring a Shot Production Coordinator for a new animated series. The post explicitly references several Star Wars projects, including The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, and The Bad Batch.
The description of the job reads, “The Shot Production Coordinator will be responsible for assisting the Associate Production Managers to create and maintain the Animation and Lighting department records and processes from pre-production through post production on an animated television series.”
Related: The Force is With You: ‘Acolyte’ Haters Can Change ‘Star Wars’
While the posting is vague about the nature of the new show, context clues suggest that Lucasfilm is looking to return to its popular animated series like The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch in the wake of a live-action controversy like The Acolyte.
The only upcoming animated Star Wars series currently on the docket is a second season of Young Jedi Adventures and the related micro-series Fun with Nubs; considering those are set to premiere on Disney+ in August, this definitely means that Lucasfilm has a covert animated series in the works that they hope will wash away the aftertaste of The Acolyte.
Is Lucasfilm going to return to the High Republic Era? Go forward into the post-Empire years of the Mandoverse? Bring back Luke Skywalker without having to worry about Mark Hamill’s age? Only time will tell.
What animated Star Wars series would you like to see next?