Deadline reports that Star Wars’ latest franchise newest spin-off series, ‘The Acolyte,’ isn’t coming back for a second season after premiering back in June. The show starred Amandla Stenberg as twins Osha and Mae, as well as Manny Jacinto.
Per the reports, Lucasfilm opted not to proceed with a second season, despite the finale ending with several plotlines open for further exploration. The series was created, directed, executive produced by showrunner Lesley Headland.
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The series received mostly positive reviews, landing a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, but divided long-time fans of the franchise. Here are the reported reasons behind the show’s cancellation at Disney+.
‘The Acolyte’ earned buzz on social media but didn’t land with fans
The Acolyte had a strong premiere with 4.8M views in its first day on the streamer, being the biggest series premiere on Disney+ this year. It landed on Nielsen’s Top 10 original charts in the premiere week at No. 7 with 488 million minutes viewed.
However, the series couldn’t sustain the viewership, which dropped significantly over its course. It dropped off the Top 10 in Week 3 and only returned at No. 10 after the release of the finale. Per Deadline, it gathered 335M minutes, believed to be the lowest for a Star Wars series finale.
Part of the reason for the lack of viewership was the series’ challenge to the typical Star Wars story, particularly making the Jedi less perfect and more… nuanced, even making selfish choices. However, other fans of the show liked the stylistic choices. One aspect that received high praise was the action sequences.
On the other hand, the series helped Jacinto’s popularity surge back, especially as his character was depicted as an attractive villain. The series also starred Jodie Turner-Smith, Margarita Levieva, Carrie-Anne Moss, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dafne Keen, Dean-Charles Chapman and Joonas Suotamo.
