Last week, Disney canceled its new Star Wars series The Acolylte just over a month after the first season had wrapped up. This was surprising, since Disney doesn't generally pull the plug on high-profile shows this quickly, particularly not when the first season ended with lots of storylines left unresolved.
Fans aren't taking this lying down. Immediately after news of the cancelation broke, they started a Change.org petition in an attempt to get it renewed. As of this writing, the petition has over 55,000 signatures, with over 4,000 coming in just today. The petition is pretty thorough; it doesn't just collect signatures and call it a day, but also links to information on a letter-writing campaign, provides instructions on how to write a physical letter of complaint to Disney, and tells fans how to complain directly on Disney's website.
The fans have the cast on their side, too. Star Lee Jung-jae (Jedi Master Sol) has said he's hoping for a renewal. “Honestly, I am hoping that maybe there could be changes in the future," he shared recently. "Because you never know what’s going to happen. So on a personal level, I really hope we could get to see further stories of second season.”
It's true that canceled shows have been revived before, but I personally don't see it happening for The Acolyte. My read on the situation is that Disney overextended itself by making too many Star Wars shows too quickly, diluting the brand; CEO Bob Iger basically admitted as much last year. The Acolyte was expensive to make and received only middling viewership. I think Iger and co saw this and took the opportunity to clear the boards a bit, which long term I think is probably the right move even though it sucks for everyone who worked on the show.
It's also true that The Acolyte received poor reviews, both from bad faith actors mad that there were Black people in it and from good faith actors who just didn't think the series was very entertaining. But I suspect that Disney cares way more about the viewership and the balance sheets. If The Acolyte had been a big hit, it would be renewed, backlash or no.
So that's me crapping on the show's chances of a revival, but let it not dim the spirits of those who are fighting to bring it back. This is the galaxy far, far away and anything can happen.
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