Dork Side of the Force
Fansided

The Acolyte getting canceled is stupid

Look at that Big Mouse and all of his money too scared to try new things. Look at him go!

By Hope Mullinax

Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger Qimir (Manny Jacinto) in Lucasfilm's Star Wars: THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger Qimir (Manny Jacinto) in Lucasfilm's Star Wars: THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved. /
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God forbid Star Wars try to tell new stories, do new things, and not play in the same overused sandbox that hat man and the dude who never used a writers room, which is why The Mandalorian will probably end with the movie and not get another season so he doesn't have to play nice with other people and share his little Mando and green space son toys.

Anyway, let's get into it. The Acolyte has been canceled, which is stupid. Deadline is reporting there will be no Season 2.

It's not the most terribly surprising news because we live in a Capitalist hellscape where streaming services are living and dying by their highest-watched shows. Heck, Disney+ just became profitable for the first time ever. I miss the days when a show had time to find its audience. It shouldn't be the norm that something new has only 8 episodes to prove its worth and must be perfect before it faces cancelation—or worse, deletion from the app.

RIP Willow, I literally never got the chance to watch you.

Because if a show isn't perfect, it's gone, and there is little hope for a physical release these days. If you have been following what's been going on in the streaming world (specifically in the world of animation as The Animation Guild has been screaming about this for years, and oh! Would you look at that? I wrote about this two whole years ago!), the streaming model makes it to where projects can be written off on taxes by freaking billionaires. Why? Because it makes them money, and the lack of physical releases means they don't have to pay residuals. Again, more on this here where I wrote about it two years ago oh my god this system is broken.

The High Republic fans are understandably upset because god forbid a Star Wars have more than just white men in it. And I say this as a white woman. This era fosters so much creativity, bringing new fans into the franchise who are, frankly, tired of the same Skywalker Saga. One single family can't run all of the stories in this franchise while everyone else around them suffers and cleans up their drama. If I wanted to watch that, I'd put on Succession. At least that's won some Emmys. You know what else also won an Emmy? Young Jedi Adventures which is set in the High Republic era, because fans want to see themself in media like this era and The Acolyte. This is such a slap in the face for fans who were seeing themselves for the first time on screen in a galaxy far, far away.

The Acolyte was new for live-action. No, it wasn't a perfect show. It had its share of flaws, but you're not going to get perfect anything. That's not where we are now, though. A show has to be House of the Dragons or something to stay on.

I'm a livid site expert at the moment. I see other streaming services like AMC+ of all things embracing its series like Interview with the Vampire to try new things with its queer and diverse stories. Heck, The Mayfair Witches didn't bring in the same numbers as its sister show, but AMC gave it another season. You know why? Because shows need time to grow and find an audience. AMC, at least, is letting it breathe. It would be great if Disney did that. But they are a corporation and they don't actually give a darn about us (pretend that "darn" is a much stronger word).

I'm going to end this with fan reactions, starting with my own. Good job Lucasfilm and Disney. You really showed your true colors today.

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