“I love how even in failure they try to spin the show as a success”: Star Wars Fans are Having the Last Laugh After The Acolyte Cancelation as Disney Tries to Paint a Different Picture
- Despite a strong premiere and decent initial performance, 'The Acolyte' couldn't sustain its viewership.
- Disney has not revealed any statement or numbers regarding its failure, and fans are taunting the studio.
- Disney's production effort didn’t translate well on screen, along with storytelling and narrative flaws.
It looks like Disney’s latest Star Wars installment has hit a roadblock. The Acolyte was set in the final days of the High Republic era, and it initially promised to show the dark and unexplored side of the Star Wars universe. However, it ended up on the wrong side of the Force.
The power of the Force couldn’t save The Acolyte from the online streaming wars. The show has come to an abrupt end and it raises many questions and doubts, while Disney might be trying to spin this story like a Jedi mind trick.
The Acolyte Fails To Secure a Next Season
The Acolyte was a kind of Disney’s attempt to bring something new into the Star Wars universe. Its plot was set centuries before the Skywalker saga, and it was promoted in a way that it will have lots of mystery and a new look at the dark side powers. But sometimes, even the most promising Padawans don’t make it to Jedi Knight status.
According to Deadline, the show gained 4.8 million views on its premiere day, which was the highest premiere day viewership for any Disney+ show in 2024 so far. The show then secured a place on Nielsen’s Top 10 originals chart for the first two weeks, after gaining around 11.1 million views within 5 days.
However, it couldn’t maintain its momentum and got dropped out of the chart, and later it somehow limped back to No. 10 with 335 million minutes viewed, which is the lowest for any Star Wars series finale.
However, showrunner Leslye Headland was hoping for a second season. Deadline reports that she even pitched her ideas, but the second season is already canceled now, and Disney seems to be playing coy here as it has not given out any statistics or statements related to The Acolyte‘s viewership failure, and netizens are already taunting the studio for that.
I love how even in failure they try to spin the show as a success.
— Daniel (@endikux) August 20, 2024
The 3 episodes I watched were laughably bad. Disney can’t seem to get the Jedi right for some reason. The Mandalorian is great. Boba Fett was solid. Everyone loves Andor. Their movie trilogy and this show were both horrendous and what it comes down to is that they just simply…
— Eric (@Ebab117) August 20, 2024
In my opinion, Disney and the shills lied about the popularity of this show. It sucked, they knew it sucked and they prompted the lap dog entertainment media and paid shills to lie.
— Gregg Barker (@GregoryABarker2) August 20, 2024
This feels like a show killed by its pacing. Disney doesn’t let these shows feel like full length episodes so we just get these movie length stories chopped up into mini episodes. I hate the binge model, but this would have performed so much better if they dropped it all at once.
— Cody Beckman (@CBeckman25) August 20, 2024
I’m sorry sometimes you gotta say fuck the numbers and “hate” and just buckle down. Disney hasn’t really found their footing with SW yet beyond animated stuff and it’s very frustrating that they caved to pressure with the first pre-prequels era project. Just sad. https://t.co/lXD1HkXCpQ
— Mal’Dib 🧙🏾♂️🗡️ (@_wakeup_mr_west) August 19, 2024
According to Forbes, The Acolyte had a production budget of $180 million, and with such a massive budget, expectations get naturally high. But the show reportedly failed to generate half the viewership of Ahsoka and The Mandalorian.
Potential Reasons Behind The Acolyte‘s Failure
Why did The Acolyte fail that badly? To begin with, that $180 million budget was about as visible on screen as a Jedi using a mind trick. The CGI and digital effects were criticized by the netizens heavily.
The show also took on the task of exploring the High Republic era, which is a non-familiar time period to most Star Wars fans. It resulted in no recognizable characters for the viewers to latch onto, and most of them felt somewhat lost and failed to build a connection.
There is also a huge criticism about the woke nature of the show that was disliked by many viewers as it sometimes broke the canon of the franchise. It became one of the reasons why the show got just an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The show also had an inconsistent pace of storytelling. Some episodes spent too much time explaining one thing while the main interesting part got over within a few minutes. The characters also failed to build the audience connection, and many deaths failed to have an impact on viewers.
Moreover, the lack of some good action added to its failure. It can be said that The Acolyte‘s cancellation shows that even in a galaxy full of possibilities, some stars just don’t shine as brightly as others.
The Acolyte is now streaming on Disney+.
