The Acolyte won’t be back for a Season 2 at Disney+.
News surfaced in multiple trade publication reports that the Lucasfilm Star Wars series was effectively canceled.
Fans have taken to Threads to lament and protest the fact that the Leslye Headland-created series will not return after just one season.
The cancellation is shocking to fans who expected Disney+ to continue to take a creative gamble with the series since one of its stars, Manny Jacinto, recently apepared D23 promoting the show.
Why was ‘The Acolyte’ canceled?
According to Deadline , Luscasfilm has decided not to move forward with the series, which ended on a cliffhanger showing star Amandla Stenberg’s character Osha turning to the dark side to become the acolyte of Jacinto’s mysterious (and jacked) Sith master. Stenberg also played Osha’s twin Mae , who was originally trained by Jacinto’s character before turning to the Jedi through various twists and turns. There’s no word on the official reasoning for the cancellation.
The series also starred an international cast including Lee Jung-jae, Jodie Turner-Smith , Margarita Levieva, Charlie Barnett, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson and Carrie-Anne Moss. Fans of the series heralded the inclusion of racial and gender diversity as well as the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters . The series is also the first Star Wars series led by a woman of color, and in Stenberg’s case, a queer woman of color (her character Osha is also implied to be queer in the series). Fans also loved how the series critiqued the Jedi’s own imperial notions of power with the message that whether it’s the Jedi or the Sith, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
But the rise of a diverse series with a queer woman of color at the center led to racist and sexist fans (otherwise known as “the fandom menace” by other Star Wars fans) review-bombing the series and pushing the narrative that it was somehow not Star Wars enough, despite Headland including deep cuts of Star Wars lore within the storyline.
Even though some on the internet are saying that The Acolyte ‘s viewing performance and production costs led to the series’ demise, fans are taking to the internet streets to try to get the series saved from cancellation. Hashtags such as #SaveTheAcolyte and #RenewTheAcolyte have become viral on Threads, and a MoveOn petition was created within the hours of the cancellation news hitting social media. The petition’s goal is to continue the story of The Acolyte , either as a TV series or a movie.
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