Many believed that the show would be renewed not only because The Acolyte finale left a number of mysteries hanging in the balance but also because The Acolyte’s showrunner, Leslye Headland, heavily teased a second season in interviews. Now, with the news that The Acolyte is not returning for another season, there has come rampant speculation that it was the show’s supposed ‘wokeness’ that led to its poor performance. However, The Acolyte had several legitimate issues, and none of them had to do with diversity.
It Wasn’t Clear Whose Story The Acolyte Was
The Acolyte had a very promising start. Initially, it seemed to be a Star Wars mystery centered on twin sisters—one on the dark side, and one on the light. Although the franchise clearly already has very prominent twins as main characters, this felt genuinely new, as the story would presumably see the sisters in opposition to one another. In part, this was true. In fact, The Acolyte’s two-episode premiere seemed to confirm that this was precisely the story the show would tell.
The Acolyte had a very promising start.
However, after the first few episodes of The Acolyte, it became difficult to identify who the true main character was. Following the premiere, the show began to focus in nearly equal measure on Master Sol, Qimir/the Stranger, and Vernestra Rwoh. While, yes, any show will include a host of characters, The Acolyte felt torn between them. Each of the major characters seemed to have their own backstory, motivations, and narrative arc, which became too much to cover in the very brief eight-episode season.
Had The Acolyte identified just Mae and Osha as the main characters (or even Qimir or Sol, respectively), the story could have been much more focused and fleshed out and may therefore have been more successful. In truth, any one of these characters could have made for a fascinating TV show. Arguably, Qimir stole the show quite a bit following The Acolyte episode 5, which suggests that he may have worked better as The Acolyte’s true lead. After all, the show was also billed as a Sith story, and Qimir was the closest The Acolyte came to keeping that promise.
The Major Reveals Took Too Long
The Acolyte received complaints about pacing issues from the very beginning, although ‘pacing’ can be a difficult thing to quantify. However, it is true that some of the show’s major plot twists and reveals took too long to maintain interest and excitement over them. A key example of this problem was the witches of Brendok. While the fate of Osha and Mae’s coven was intriguing following the first two episodes, The Acolyte ended up dedicating two entire episodes of the show just to uncovering what happened to the witches from different points of view.
To put that into perspective, in its eight-episode season, The Acolyte dedicated a quarter of its episodes just to revealing what had taken place on Brendok. In a show that was trying to accomplish so much with so many different characters, it simply didn’t make sense for this much time to be dedicated to this reveal. In fact, the entire second episode about the witches of Brendok was largely unnecessary; it was already fairly clear from context clues that the Jedi were culpable, and brief flashbacks could have worked just as well if not better.
The witches of Brendok mystery was not the only one that took too long, however. In fact, one of the most massive reveals of the show was given only a few brief seconds of screen time in the show’s final episode. Specifically, in The Acolyte finale, Darth Plagueis had a wonderfully disturbing cameo, confirming that he had been the true Sith master in the shadows all along. Sadly, that went unexplored in the first season, and it doesn’t seem that story will ever be told in light of The Acolyte’s cancelation.
The Acolyte Leaned Too Heavily On A Second Season
Ultimately, The Acolyte suffered most from relying on a second season. This is clear not only in that staggering number of cliffhangers present in The Acolyte finale but also in interviews with showrunner Leslye Headland, who, when asked about the first season, frequently explained that the question would be addressed or further explored if the show was picked up for season 2. Unfortunately, that strategy simply didn’t work. In fact, everything teased for season 2 should have been the story of The Acolyte all along.
The Acolyte suffered most from relying on a second season.
This show was a massive opportunity for the franchise, as it was a brand-new era for Star Wars to explore in live-action and could therefore introduce countless new characters and storylines. However, the aspects of The Acolyte that had viewers most excited, such as the appearance of Darth Plagueis and the growing darkness threatening the Jedi, were pushed off for a second season that, now, seemingly won’t ever come. In truth, The Acolyte did have issues that likely pushed Star Wars to not renew the show, but none of them had anything to do with diversity.
