Divisive Disney+ series with 19% Rotten Tomatoes score gets glimmer of hope for season 2
The show faced backlash for its 'woke' themes
Not all hope may be lost for one of Disney's most divisive series.
Almost a year after Star Wars: The Acolyte made its debut on Disney+, there’s new talk of a Season 2 after all - despite an official cancellation.
The show, which aired across June and July 2024, took Star Wars fans into the High Republic era for the first time in live action.
It followed a former Padawan reuniting with her old Jedi Master to investigate a string of mysterious crimes - only to discover something far more sinister going on.
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Despite a cliffhanger that teased the possible arrival of Darth Plagueis, The Acolyte was cancelled just a month after the finale aired.
According to Deadline, The Acolyte pulled in 2.7 billion minutes of watch time in 2024, making it the second-most-watched Disney+ original of the year, just behind Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
It even outperformed Ahsoka, which is confirmed to return for Season 2. That kind of viewership could make a solid case for bringing The Acolyte back.
However, the Star Wars spinoff faced backlash for its 'woke' themes and contradictions to Star Wars canon, and lost viewership week after week.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the show received 78% from critics and 19% from audiences with mediocre reviews.
"I thought the episodes were good, but not mind-blowing," wrote one viewer.
"I will bet you that the pitch deck and the season outline were stellar. The end result? Ehhhhhhhhh," another unenthusiastic viewer added.
Someone else commented: "While not the massive breakout hit I was hoping for The Acolyte was still a really fun series to follow, with some well-choreographed fights and a couple of interesting characters well-acted by Lee Jung-jae and Manny Jacinto."
Adding to Disney's hesitation to renew, The Acolyteran ran well over budget, with production costs hitting over $230 million before post-production wrapped, according to Forbes.
Following the release of Season One, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said: “We were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a Season 2. So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that.”
And while the viewership numbers were big to start, Deadline reported that nearly all of Disney+’s franchises 'underperformed last year.'
Nevertheless, if the rumours turn out to be true, at least half of the fanbase will be thrilled to see Season 2 happen.