Star Wars Fans Are Losing Faith In The Franchise After The Acolyte Cancellation, And I Think LucasFilm Should Be Concerned

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Does it feel like Star Wars fandom is always in some form of disarray? Looking back over the past few years of Star Wars projects, there have been precious few that have united the fanbase in collective excitement. Everyone seemed to be on board during the run up to JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And there have been waves of popularity for culture-shifting projects like The Mandalorian (during its early seasons, at least), and Andor. Both rank high on our list of Star Wars shows, ranked. When a Star Wars show whiffs, however, the fanbase turns. It gets ugly. And I fear that LucasFilm reacts too quickly to fan blowback, putting future Star Wars shows in an uncomfortable position.

Star Wars fans learned recently that The Acolyte would not be back for Season 2, leaving so many of the tantalizing plot threads dangling. The finale of The Acolyte included brief shots of Yoda (who would be thriving during the time of the High Republic) and the tease of Darth Plagueis. Also, the twins storyline between Mae and Osha (both played by Amandla Stenberg) led to a role reversal. Seriously, watch the first – and now only – season of The Acolyte. It’s worth your time.

Deadline claims that The Acolyte was cancelled. More accurately, it just wasn’t renewed. The same fate befell The Book of Boba Fett, and that series wasn’t labeled as cancelled. Fans still call for the continuation of that story online.

The blame for The Acolyte seems to fall on fan interest, or a lack thereof. “Ratings” don’t really exist for a streaming service, though the trade notes that The Acolyte made its debut in the Nielsen Top 10, dropped out of that Top 10 after week 3, and didn’t return until the release of the finale. Deadline reports that the series finale of The Acolyte logged 335 million minutes, the lowest for a Star Wars series finale.

Here’s where that Star Wars divide comes into play. Segments of the Star Wars fanbase have vocally called for the demise of The Acolyte, theoretically pushing back against lead characters of color, and a “woke” agenda.

Other fans push back against this criticism, and beg for Star Wars stories that go in a different direction from the films and shows of The Skywalker Saga. By setting its story in the High Republic, The Acolyte showed us live-action interpretations of Star Wars elements that previously had been limited to books, comics, video games and fringe lore. The fans who wanted different embraced The Acolyte, and fought back against the online trolling the show and its creatives received.

Even if the reason for the cancellation was purely numbers driven, the optics look bad. Believe me, The Acolyte simply joins a laundry list of shows that should not have been axed after one season, including My So-Called Life, Freaks and Geeks, and Willow (also you, LucasFilm). This happens to shows all of the time, be they Star Wars shows or not.

But failing to renew a show like The Acolyte, that so clearly set itself up for more storytelling with teases for continuing narratives sends the message to future Star Wars shows like Skeleton Crew that they are on a short leash. Succeed right out of the gate, or your future is in jeopardy. Creators don’t appear to have the full support of LucasFilm, a company that notoriously broke ties with several filmmakers as they toiled away on projects, or delivered something as divisive as Star Wars: The Last Jedi. How’s that Rian Johnson trilogy coming along?

I’m not saying LucasFilm needs to throw money at a show that isn’t attracting an audience. But the way that LucasFilm keeps shifting the creative goalposts without any clear indication on the type of storytelling it wants to pursue means that genuine apathy is going to set in with a fanbase that used to want to crawl over broken glass to defend the studio’s right to tell stories. And once that’s gone, winning those fans back becomes as difficult as placing a torpedo inside an exhaust port. Not impossible. But nearly.