How to save Star Wars TV from a broken streaming model

The recent cancellation of The Acolyte has triggered the fandom for numerous reasons. Still, beyond the hate campaign and some legitimate flaws the show had, its cancellation is a symptom of a larger problem with the TV streaming model.

According to Empire, streaming networks are churning out too many shows simultaneously, and they can't get the attention they deserve before a network pulls the plug. For the most part, Star Wars fans have been pretty lucky because there haven't been many shows, unlike other streaming services such as Netflix. Live-action Star Wars shows include The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, and the yet-to-be-released Skeleton Crew. Only The Mandalorian has had multiple seasons. As of now, Boba Fett and Kenobi fall under the "limited series" category.

However, while Disney+ slowly rolled out a handful of Star Wars shows in the past five years, its competitors, such as Netflix and HBO Max, have been quite busy. Netflix has become notorious for canceling shows without any explanation. Their cancellations often seem worse than anybody's since they tend to do it either after the first or even the second season of any show. Series such as Shadow and Bone were two seasons in before cancellation, so fans never got to see how the story ended. Similarly, The Acolyte's first season ended on an exciting note, and news of its cancellation came as a shock.

While ratings will continue to matter as they do for all streaming networks, something has to change internally for shows to avoid getting the axe after season one. A great example to follow would be Andor, which had a story worth five seasons, which was condensed down to a guaranteed two seasons. Diego Luna, Tony Gilroy, and the entire cast and crew of Andor went into season one knowing they'd be filming another one and weren't concerned about how season one would perform. The show took time to impress audiences, but now that it has, a final season will drop on Disney+ next year as promised.

While The Acolyte may not have been a story meant to be told in only two seasons, maybe it's time every show is written like something that won't run beyond season two. However, if the ratings for either of the first two seasons are strong enough, Disney should continue the series beyond a second season. This is pretty much how The Mandalorian got to where it is today. Another thing that went against The Acolyte is its budget, and the only way to fix this is to give every show the same budget, which can be increased later on if the show receives a fantastic response.

Overall, there are too many streaming networks, too many shows, and far too much competition. Every network hopes a show clicks the minute it starts streaming, which rarely happens. Some stories are a slow burn, and the hype grows with each passing season, which could be the case for The Acolyte. In the meantime, Star Wars would do best with a limited number of shows, an experimental limited series, and a guaranteed two seasons from the get-go. This would spare stories set in our favorite galaxy from sudden cancellations, which have become the norm on other networks.