EXCLUSIVE: The story of The Acolyte will not continue, with Lucasfilm opting not to proceed with a second season of the Star Wars offshoot starring Amandla Stenberg, sources tell Deadline.
Word of the decision comes more than a month after the eight-episode first season of the series from creator, director, executive producer and showrunner Leslye Headland wrapped its run on Disney+.
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The news is not entirely surprising. The Acolyte did OK with critics, with 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, but divided Star Wars fans, which was reflected in its overall viewership.
Driven by interest into the venerable space franchise, The Acolyte got off to a strong start when it launched June 4 with two episodes, generating 4.8M views in its first day on the streamer to rank as the biggest series premiere on Disney+ this year. The tally rose to 11.1 million views globally after five days of streaming. Corroborating Disney’s data, the series made its debut on Nielsen’s Top 10 originals chart in its premiere week at No. 7 (488 million minutes viewed), climbing to No. 6 the following week.
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But The Acolyte could not sustain the momentum, dropping out of the Top 10 in Week 3 and staying off before returning at No. 10 after the release of the finale (335M minutes, believed to be the lowest for a Star Wars series finale).
Like fellow global streamers Netflix and Prime Video, Disney+ has a high viewership threshold for renewing high-end, big-budget series that cost well above $100M per season to make.
RELATED: ‘The Acolyte’s Amandla Stenberg Releases Song After Being Flooded With “Intolerable Racism”
In interviews, Headland has revealed that she had pitched her ideas for a second season, sharing her hopes for a renewal.
Lucasfilm’s first — and most successful to date — Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, is carrying on, crossing over to features with the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu. Ahsoka, the company’s series that preceded The Acolyte, has been renewed for a second season.
The Acolyte was a mystery-thriller that took viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.
In addition to Stenberg, the cast included Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Jodie Turner-Smith, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman and Carrie-Anne Moss.
The series was bad. No matter how one spins it, it was a terrible show and that was reflected in the numbers. Even the merchandise, the real money makers, are being pulled for Disney stores.
If that isn’t an indicator of how horrendous the show was, I don’t know what is.
Everyone I’ve spoken to has really enjoyed the show. Maybe if all those toxic ‘fans’ would just not watch it and shut up, maybe us true fans could still enjoy this great show. It’s obvious that the story was important to the events leading up to Anikin’s ‘conception’. I was especially hoping to learn Shmi’s backstory. Maybe even learn a little bit about the history of the Skywalker bloodline. Looks like the whiners win again.
See all the whiners responses that will attack me below…….
Agreed, I enjoyed it. The toxic fanbase needs to be ignored.
Even if your so-called ‘toxic’ fans watched it, they would have added to the viewing figures. There just weren’t enough of them.
Disney has done something new, fresh and interesting. After that, Disney was afraid of what he had done and immediately decided to close it.
This show was a walking contradiction.
A series that clearly did not want to be Star Wars, but still insisting on using the brand.
No wonder it ended-up being dead on arrival.
Some good ideas, and interesting characters. But the ‘mystery’ part was over almost immediately, some strange story choices, kept this series from really standing out. I’m still disappointed there won’t be a season 2, but maybe we can still get more of Manny Jacinto’s character? One can only hope.
And talking about ‘online discourse’ seems pointless since there’s a faction that’ll whine about anything they consider ‘woke’ even if they haven’t watched it.