The second season for The Acolyte has been canceled, and now an industry insider is claiming that Lucasfilm is not the one to be blamed.
Film director cum screenwriter Leslye Headland tried really hard to bring something new to the Star Wars table with The Acolyte, even if it cost Lucasfilm and Disney a whopping budget of millions. However, the magic doesn’t seem to have worked its charm considering how the series will reportedly not be getting revived for a second season.
A still from The Acolyte. | Credits: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Although the premise on which the storyline built up was indeed a rather curious one, encompassed in the High Republic era around 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace took place, the series will still be biting the dust without a second season. And, this time, Lucasfilm isn’t quite the one to blame, as per the exclusive reports spilled by an industry insider.
Lucasfilm is Not the Reason Why The Acolyte is Not Being Revived
When the series was originally announced with the storyline it was going to explore, fans were truly excited and interested to see how this new turn of events would unfold in the Star Wars universe. But then the show dropped for real, and things changed rather quickly as a considerable part of the fanbase turned against the show, with its plotline being one of the many reasons why.
A still from the series. | Credits: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Nonetheless, the part of the fandom curious about it wanted the storyline to be continued. However, the second season of the show has been canceled, and Lucasfilm isn’t one to be blamed. This comes after reports from industry scooper Jeff Sneider claimed via The InSneider that the real reason behind this sudden cancellation is the humiliatingly low viewership score of the series.
According to the details shared by @CultureCrave on X, the viewership for this saga “reportedly collapsed after the first two episodes.” And while the series is expected to not be removed from Disney+, a source claims:
You can blame Lucasfilm for a lot of things, but not this one. If more people watched it, then it would have been renewed.
#TheAcolyte cost ~$630K per minute of screentime
• Was canceled due to low viewership
• There are no plans to remove the series from Disney+ pic.twitter.com/o2GYM1id9s— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) August 26, 2024
Since it already cost a whopping fortune of $630,000 per minute of screen time to bring this Star Wars lore to life, the deal wasn’t proving to be too profitable for both Disney and Lucasfilm. That said, for the fans who wanted to see more of how this storyline would continue to unfold going forward, this news is indeed heartbreaking.
And yet, the ones to blame for this are none other than the fans themselves.
Fans React to The Acolyte Being Canceled Due to Low Viewership
A still from the series. | Credits: Lucasfilm/Disney+
While a part of the fandom that was in love with this Leslye Headland-tamed Star Wars project and felt it was critically underrated and hated by other fans for no reason is mourning this loss, the other majority of the fandom is having some of the most sarcastic reactions to this news. To say the least, they are glad Disney will no longer be “wasting” millions on something like this.
Taking to the comment section of the X post, here are their hilariously trolling reactions to Disney’s “obscene spending” on the series:
Everyone claiming it was the “haters” who got The Acolyte canceled, here’s the truth written out for you.
In reality, you either hyped up the show on Twitter but didn’t actually watch it, or you’re just a loud minority that wasn’t big enough to keep it alive.
Sorry the truth…
— MasteroftheTDS (@MasteroftheTDS) August 26, 2024
That is an insane waste of money
— RPGesusgoingin (@Masongham) August 26, 2024
Where was the power of many? pic.twitter.com/NXG4vCk5rj
— Lily* (@300mirrors) August 26, 2024
Lucasfilm finally doing something smart! pic.twitter.com/3XKljgMfxi
— Syriangeekvibes (@syriangeekvibes) August 26, 2024
welp pic.twitter.com/ChOadqIywa
— nous (@nousphos) August 26, 2024
EACH episode of the Acolyte cost 50% more than the entire budget of Godzilla Minus One.
— Chertok (@coolerkdawg) August 26, 2024
All they had to do was make a good show. That went downhill when they chose the woke directly.
— politicofolitico (@politicofolitic) August 26, 2024
All of this being put out there, it’s an inevitably hard pill to swallow to know that The Acolyte actually cost an incredible $180 million to make for a mere 8 episodes and still failed to garner enough attention for it to at least be revived for a second season.
Nonetheless, if Disney was considering spending such tremendous numbers on something that so many fans disliked, then it seems like it was only for the better that the plan for a season 2 crashed before it could even materialize.
The Acolyte can currently be streamed on Disney+.
