Lucasfilm
“The Acolyte” is no more. For the first time since Lucasfilm started making live-action “Star Wars” TV shows for Disney+, one of these series has been officially canceled. Though the show had its issues, it was still a fantastic and fresh take on the galaxy far, far away — one that explored a nuanced story of the fallacy of the Jedi, gave us spectacular lightsaber battles and some fascinating lore additions.
Still, “The Acolyte” didn’t do particularly well when it came to viewership (though what exactly constitutes low viewership for Disney, we don’t know), it was very expensive to produce, and it brought a lot of controversy — nothing new for this franchise, to be honest. Still, canceling it after just one season feels like a missed opportunity, as this is a brand new era in “Star Wars” not seen anywhere else outside of books and comics. With “The Acolyte” gone, will Lucasfilm and Disney continue to explore the High Republic era or abandon it completely?
This raises other questions, too. Is “The Acolyte” being canceled an isolated event or a sign that fewer “Star Wars” shows will be made going forward? Would “The Acolyte” have been renewed had it premiered last year in place of “Ahsoka”? Or is this Disney and Lucasfilm caving in to the worst “Star Wars” fans (i.e. those who hated the very fact that this was a TV show led by people of color)? If it’s merely viewership that matter,s the show didn’t perform particularly worse than “Andor,” yet that series is returning for a second season.
In truth, the cancelation of “The Acolyte” seems to be a frustrating symptom of a larger problem with streaming shows. The threshold for what makes a hit or a miss in the era of streaming is vague at best, and TV shows no longer have the luxury of time.
It’s more than just toxic Star Wars fans
Lucasfilm
Sure, it’s easy to blame the cancelation of “The Acolyte” on Disney catering to toxic fans, and it’s not entirely out of the question to consider this an option. The optics of this cancelation aren’t exactly flattering to the studio. After all, we saw how “The Rise of Skywalker” walked back on a lot of what “The Last Jedi” did, specifically the aspects that were controversial amongst certain fans. And now we get “The Acolyte,” the first “Star Wars” project led primarily by actors of color and one that had an Asian actor (“Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae) in a prominent role, gets canceled after one season.
What makes the cancelation particularly alarming is that it’s the first time a live-action “Star Wars” show has been semi-officially canceled rather than simply left in limbo. “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” also had one season, yet Lucasfilm has refused to formally acknowledge the future of either show. Sure, the same cannot be said for “Star Wars” movies, which are loudly canceled often (and other times uncanceled?), but the fact that “The Acolyte” attracted such vitriol online before being loudly canceled is a bad look. It’s even worse coming just a week after Disney paraded “The Acolyte” star Manny Jacinto around at D23 to talk about the show.
Unlike “The Book of Boba Fett,” which stars a beloved character who can readily appear in another ongoing show, “The Acolyte” is largely unconnected to other continuing “Star Wars” series. That this, the first project set well outside the timeline of the Skywalker Saga, should get promptly canceled sends a poor message about what Lucasfilm has planned for the future of “Star Wars,” particularly since the majority of titles moving forward right now were either created or co-created by Lucasfilm’s current chief creative officer, Dave Filoni.
Blockbuster-sized TV budgets are bad
Lucasfilm
The likeliest reason for “The Acolyte” getting canceled is that it simply cost too much, with a reported budget of roughly $180 million (according to The New York Times). That is not a problem limited to this show, but to the entire era of streaming (and, for that matter, even blockbuster movies). When each TV show costs as much as a big-screen tentpole, expectations are it will also perform like a big-screen tentpole.
Both theatrical and streaming are hemorrhaging money, and studios are starting to wake up to the problem that increased budgets are no guarantee for success. Making matters worse, a movie with a $200 million budget can at least make its money back quickly and justify its cost through box office gains, but a streaming show? Not so much. Of course, a big reason for the higher budgets on TV shows is that they are relying a lot on VFX in order to resemble blockbuster movies. With so many blockbuster TV shows, competition for VFX houses is high, meaning the wait between seasons is also getting increasingly longer.
“The Acolyte” was not a big hit, but neither were its predecessors. As mentioned already, “Andor” is getting a second season, sure, but viewership was not that high either. This cancelation may very well be a sign of things to come, with Disney realizing that it is spending too much money on moderately successful shows, and the number of high-budget “Star Wars” TV productions may decrease significantly in the future. After all, high costs was the reason George Lucas never managed to make his own live-action “Star Wars” TV show despite years and years of development.
Waiting years for a new season is bad
Lucasfilm
Because of the high TV costs, TV seasons have become shorter and shorter (and in the case of Disney+ shows, episodes have also become shorter). But with the shorter seasons, we are also getting exceedingly long waits between seasons. Rather than a few months like on network TV, or a year like “Game of Thrones” earlier on in its run, we now have wait an average of two years to catch up with our favorite characters. How are audiences expected to know or care about a TV show when they only spend at most eight hours with their characters every two years?
This is a huge problem of the streaming era, as episode orders and long production waiting times are affecting the pacing of storytelling. “House of the Dragon” now has to finish its story in just 16 episodes when it’s covered less than half of it across its first 18. Meanwhile, the live-action “One Piece” will only cover up to the Drum Island arc in its second season rather than get to Alabasta — meaning, the show is taking a rather slow-paced approach to adapting its nearly 30-year-old source material. At the current pace of eight episodes every two years, the current cast will be the age of the original anime’s voice actors (who are in their late 60s and through their 70s) by the time we get to the time skip.
With such a long wait for shows based on pre-existing and popular material, the years of anticipation can already wane down interest. (Case in point: “House of the Dragon” season 2 had significantly lower ratings than season 1.) For original shows like “The Acolyte,” what incentive is there for people to come back, let alone remember the show after two whole years when they barely know the characters and world?
The problem with streaming
Lucasfilm
The problem with “The Acolyte” is that the show was too big to be allowed to fail. A “Star Wars” series exploring an era of the franchise’s history never before depicted in film or television — with a budget that matches that of a blockbuster movie — couldn’t simply be “fine” or even “decent.” It had to be a “Mandalorian” level phenomenon. When every streaming show is expected to be the next “Stranger Things” or the next “Mandalorian,” how can any show succeed?
Once upon a time, TV shows were allowed to take their time and find their audience. Plenty of cult classics like “Parks and Recreation” and “Community” managed to live for years on the verge of cancelation before they found their niche (and continued to live on the verge of cancelation thereafter). “Breaking Bad,” considered one of the best shows of the century, only became a hit (in addition to a critical darling) because streaming gave it a new audience years after its initial debut. How many TV shows considered to be classics were great from the get-go? Even “Star Wars” series like “The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” faced many issues at the start, with the former being hated online upon release much like “The Acolyte,” and not becoming a hit amongst fans and critics until later in its run.
TV shows are no longer afforded the time to hit their groove in the streaming era. Either you’re a hit right out of the gate or you’re gone, and that only further encourages audiences to not invest their time in something that isn’t immediately amazing. If a high-profile “Star Wars” show like “The Acolyte” can get canceled after one season, why should you even care about the next one?