Credit: LucasfilmThe star is back in the galaxy far, far away.
The Acolyte marked a bold swing for Lucasfilm, pulling Star Wars into uncharted territory with a High Republic setting centuries before the Skywalker Saga. Under the guidance of creator Leslye Headland, the show set out to peel back the veneer of the Jedi’s so-called Golden Age, offering audiences a look at the shadowy stirrings of the Sith and a more complex meditation on the Force than fans were used to seeing on screen.
Visually striking and narratively daring, the series sparked fierce debate almost from the moment it premiered. The Acolyte became a lightning rod for conversations about canon, identity, and the future of Star Wars storytelling. Its eight-episode arc left plenty of unanswered questions, yet its run came to a premature close, with reports citing lackluster viewership as the reason for cancellation. For many, the move felt like Lucasfilm bowing to the loudest critics, whose online attacks often zeroed in on cast and creatives, from Amandla Stenberg (Osha/Mae Aniseya) and Lee Jung-jae (Jedi Master Sol) to Manny Jacinto (The Stranger/Qimir) and Jodie Turner-Smith (Mother Aniseya).
From the start, The Acolyte carried a unique weight. Announced as a “female-centric” project, it drew both praise and backlash, celebrated for its inclusivity while also being labeled “woke” by detractors. With Headland as a queer woman showrunner and a cast that pushed Star Wars toward greater diversity, the show stood at the intersection of progress and pushback.
Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman later suggested that budget hurdles sealed its fate, though demand data painted a different picture. According to Parrot Analytics, The Acolyte outpaced Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, and even Ahsoka, suggesting the decision may have been more financial than fan-driven.
Had the series continued, it likely would have unraveled the deeper histories and relationships of its central characters, threads now left to linger in supplementary material. Instead, The Acolyte stands as a daring experiment in Star Wars storytelling that revealed both the promise and the peril of taking risks in a galaxy built on tradition.
In one of the more striking pivots in the Star Wars franchise’s recent trajectory, Jodie Turner-Smith—a potent presence in The Acolyte as Mother Aniseya—has been quietly welcomed back into the fold, this time to lend her voice to an episode of Star Wars: Visions Season 3. Her return comes not as a quiet reconciliation, but as a tacit reminder of the tensions that simmered beneath the surface when The Acolyte first launched.
Turner-Smith’s re-entry into Lucasfilm’s orbit feels almost defiant. Roughly a year ago, she had taken aim at the franchise’s handling of the torrent of online abuse that greeted The Acolyte’s release—abuse she believed the studio should have publicly confronted.
“She put so much care and thought and love into that, and it’s disappointing to feel like your studio is not having your back in a very public-facing way,” Turner-Smith told Glamour Magazine in 2024.
With evident frustration over how the cast had been left to navigate the backlash alone: “They’ve got to stop doing this thing where they don’t say anything when people are getting f***ing dog-piled on the internet with racism and bullshit. It’s just not fair to not say anything. It’s really unfair.”
In Glamour, Turner-Smith also reflected on the broader systemic disparity she sees in the industry, a disparity born of race and gender: “We don’t get to fail upward like a lot of white men.” That insight, spoken in the context of her whole career arc, carries extra weight when she turns it inward toward The Acolyte’s reception: a project that, despite the commitment of its cast, became the target of toxic fandom and review-bombing, and which now holds one of the lowest Rotten Tomatoes audience scores in the franchise’s history.
Her decision to return, then, reads less as forgiveness and more as insistence: that one can both criticize a studio’s failures and still reclaim space within its universe. That she would step back into Star Wars—even after leveling public rebukes—suggests a belief in the possibility of accountability, or at least a desire to push for it from within.
If nothing else, Turner-Smith’s reappearance underlines a vital point: in fandom and franchise, power dynamics don’t vanish just because a new title is announced. They persist, and actors—as much as studios—must navigate their legacies, their platforms, and the silence (or lack thereof) around those who endure the backlash. Turner-Smith is part of the English voice cast in WIT Studios’ “The Bounty Hunters” episode.
Star Wars: Visions is an animated anthology series that reimagines the galaxy far, far away through the lens of diverse storytelling traditions and artistic styles. First premiering on Disney+ in 2021, the project broke new ground by inviting acclaimed animation studios from around the world to create self-contained shorts that expand upon—or in some cases completely re-envision—the mythos of Star Wars.
Season 1 featured a lineup of Japanese anime studios, delivering fresh takes that blended samurai epics, cyberpunk, and folklore with the Force and lightsabers. Season 2 widened the scope, partnering with global creators from countries including Spain, Ireland, Chile, and India, further broadening the visual language and cultural influences at play.
Each installment is non-canonical, which gives artists freedom to experiment without being bound to established lore. This results in stories that range from intimate character journeys to sweeping action spectacles. What unites them is their focus on the themes central to Star Wars.
With Season 3 arriving in 2025, Visions has cemented itself as one of the franchise’s most innovative experiments. It offers fans a chance to see Star Wars through wholly new perspectives while celebrating the universality of its storytelling themes.
How do you feel about adding this Acolyte star to the new season of Star Wars: Visions? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!