The Acolyte was one of the most hyped and looked forward to Star Wars projects by fans before it released earlier this year. It had a somewhat warm reception from fans, but it looks like according to Deadline, the show will not return for a second season. The show comes from creator, director, executive producer, and showrunner Lesley Headland and starred Amandla Stenberg.
The series did well, but not well enough with critics scoring a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, but divided Star Wars fans. The viewership numbers were not as large as Disney and Lucasfilm were hoping.
It got off to an incredibly strong start with 4.8M views in its first day on the streamer, which was the biggest premiere on Disney+ this year. That tally went even higher with 11.1M views globally after five days of streaming. The Nielsen Top 10 charts placed it at No. 7 (488 million minutes viewed) the first week, and then No. 6 the following week. It dropped out of the Top 10 for its third week and only recovered for the season finale, coming in at No. 10 (335M minutes viewed, which is the lowest for any Star Wars finale).
Why Would They Cancel The Acolyte, And What Happens With Star Wars Going Forward?
The show had a massive budget for a streaming series and the bar was already sky high for viewership for it to get renewed. The series just couldn’t hold onto those numbers across the entirety of the season. The Mandalorian remains Disney+’s most popular and sturdy series from a ratings perspective. Other Star Wars series like Ahsoka and Andor have gotten second season renewals.
The Acolyte also included Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Jodie Turner-Smith, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
We’ll have to see how this affects any other Star Wars content going forward. They have the series Skeleton Crew on the horizon that they showed off at D23.
Skeleton Crew centers on a group of kids lost in a galaxy far, far away — as they try to make their way home. It comes from Jon Watts, the director of Marvel’s Spider-Man trilogy. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are executive producing the series which is set in the New Republic era. The cast includes young actors Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith and Ryan Kiera Armstrong.
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Source: Deadline