YouTube/Disney+
In news that will delight some and disappoint others, Disney has cancelled the Star Wars series The Acolyte after just one season, Deadline Hollywood reports. The eight-episode series started off strong, with mostly positive reviews and solid ratings, albeit lower than previous Star Wars series. But it couldn’t sustain and build on that early momentum, and given the cost of production, it’s not surprising that Disney pulled the plug.
The Acolyte The main story was reportedly wrapped up neatly in the season finale, but it also struggled to set the stage for a potential second season. In this streaming age, no show is ever guaranteed renewal. Still, it would have been fun to see what showrunner Leslye Headland had planned; given the chance, many shows have gotten off to such second-season forays.
(Spoilers for the series below. We'll give you another warning when we get to major spoilers.)
As I wrote before, The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic era, approximately a century before the events of The Ghost Threat. In this period, the Jedi aren’t the underdog rebels fighting against the evil Galactic Empire. They’re at the height of their power, representing the dominant mainstream institution, not necessarily a benevolent one, depending on one’s perspective. That’s a significant departure from most Star Wars media, and perhaps a reason why the show was so divisive among fans. (The show had its problems, but I’ll dismiss the deeply unserious complaints from those who objected to the female-centric storyline and the presence of people of color by dubbing it “The Wokelyte” and launching a review-bombing campaign.)
The Acolyte on the planet Ueda, where a mysterious, masked, dagger-wielding woman attacked and killed Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss). The killer was quickly identified as Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg), a former padawan who now works as a meknek, repairing starships. Osha was arrested by her former classmate, Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), but claimed her innocence. Her twin sister, Mae, died in a fire on their home planet of Brendok when they were both young. Osha concluded that Mae was still alive and had killed Indara. Osha's former Jedi Master, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), believed her, and subsequent events proved Osha right.
Mae's goals were not random. She wanted to kill the four Jedi she blamed for the fire on Brendok: Indara, Sol, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), and a Jedi Wookiee named Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). The quartet had arrived on Brendok to demand that they be allowed to test the twins as potential Jedi.
The twins had been raised by a coven of “Force witches” there, led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who believed that the Jedi were abusing the Force. While Mae was eager to follow in their mother's footsteps, Osha wanted to train with the Jedi. When the fire broke out, both Mae and Osha believed that the other twin had been killed, along with the rest of the coven. How the fire really started, and the identity of Mae's mysterious Master who had trained her in the dark side of the Force, were the major mysteries that unfolded over the course of the season.
(WARNING: There are major spoilers below. Stop reading now if you haven't finished the series.)
Lightsabers and wuxia
Lucasfilm/Disney+
From the beginning, The Acolyte was a bit of a departure from a typical Star Wars series, taking elements from wuxia films and detective stories, while staying true to the established Star Wars aesthetic and design. That alone made it an intriguing effort, with fresh characters and new takes on classic Star Wars lore. And the martial arts-inspired fight choreography was clever and fun to watch, especially in the shocking, action-packed fifth episode (“Night”).
But there were also some glaring shortcomings, most notably the wooden dialogue, although that has been a long-standing feature of the Star Wars franchise. (Alec Guinness hated his dialogue as Obi-Wan Kenobi in A new hope.) The pace was sometimes a bit slow and the death toll among the main characters was surprisingly high.
Lucasfilm/Disney+
That alone could have made a second season challenging. I mean, they killed Moss' Jedi master in the first 10 minutes (though she reappeared in flashbacks), and Torbin and Kelnacca met the same fate in the next few episodes. By the time the final credits rolled, nearly every major Jedi character was dead. And senior leader Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) chose to blame the murders on Sol (RIP) rather than Mae's master, who turned out to be Vernestra's former apprentice, Qimir (a scene-stealing Manny Jacinto)—now the apprentice of Sith lord Darth Plagueis. (This was heavily hinted at in the finale, and later confirmed by Headland.)
Ultimately, though, it all came down to ratings. According to Deadline, The Acolyte collected 11.1 million views in its first five days (and 488 million minutes watched) – not bad, but lower Ahsoka's 14 million views in the same period. But those numbers dropped off sharply in the weeks that followed, with the finale earning the dubious honor of having the lowest minutes watched (335 million) for a Star Wars series finale. That simply didn't meet Disney's renewal threshold, so we won't learn any more about the Qimir/Darth Plagueis connection.
