Unfortunately for fans of the show, The Acolyte has been canceled after just a single season. You can read more about that here.
We know the show heavily relied on getting a second season but now we’re never going to know. I feel like one of the issues here is how poorly the showrunner, Leslye Headland handled the interviews and discussions. She mentioned that all questions would be answered IF the show got picked up for another season but why leave it to cliffhangers, especially when there was no guarantee of it ever getting a second season
This was a running theme throughout the show. It took too long for the major reveals and then backpedaled using full dedicated flashback episodes. It never made sense and made the structure of the season a little messy.
This fell into the characters as well. It tried to tell everyone’s back story in one go which in turn made it more difficult to follow. There was no clear-cut good guy or bad guy in this which in my opinion, hurt the show more. The reason why is because we know Darth Plagueis is involved. He’s a straight-up bad guy and was the Master of Palpatine so come on.
Lore for me was also shattered if we’re expanding on the above point here. I feel like Anakin’s conception was no longer unique, I’ve never hidden away from that. The fact Osha and Mae were able to be conceived in the same way as Anakin now takes that special nature away from Anakin. Maybe I’m wrong here but this is just my feelings.
We also have to look at Ki-Adi-Mundi’s comments in the Prequel trilogy where he explained a Sith hasn’t been seen in a millennia yet Qimir slaughtered Jedi like there was no tomorrow. It doesn’t make sense and the known lore we’ve had for years feels broken.
I don’t believe the show in particular was woke or anything along those lines but I do understand the complaints from fans. However, despite how I feel about the show itself – I do think a season 2 may have done the show justice. It’s needed more than anything.
I do have to reiterate I don’t like how the show cliffhangers deliberately and now we’ll never know but a season 2 with the already explored characters and set scenes, we could have had something incredible and that’s what concerns me.
I’m a Star Wars fan through and through. I try to find the good in every single project and I did the same with The Acolyte despite feeling like it was the weakest project Disney has put out – even behind The Last Jedi.
Disney has done alright with the shows. Andor and The Mandalorian were hits. Boba Fett I enjoyed but understandably that was 50/50. Ahsoka was incredible. I adored Kenobi. I do think Disney really needs to put Filoni at the forefront of everything and ensure things are greenlit through him. I don’t know if this was already the case but it needs to be better.
This show also proves that fans can speak volumes. Halo was also recently canceled and I’m even surprised that got to a second season. Showrunners need to remember it’s the fans that count, it’s their time, their investments here. If you make a show based on your agenda, and your feelings and it doesn’t resonate with fans – it’s destined to fail. I feel like this is exactly what happened with The Acolyte.
