Why every Star Wars show should be approached with suspicion (until it proves itself)

Tonight, Disney will drop the first two episodes of The Acolyte, a new Star Wars series, on Disney+. The series has been billed as the earliest-ever Star Wars story in the timeline, set many years before even the Star Wars prequel movies. In this story, the Jedi are at the height of their power and influence and the Republic is thriving. Which is why it's so disturbing that someone is killing Jedi. Who would, or could, disrupt this paradise a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? By the end of the show, we'll have an answer.

I hope that answer is worth learning, but I doubt I'm the only one who now goes into every new Star Wars show with some level of trepidation. The truth is that the franchise has been in a rut for a few years now, a problem we can probably trace back to Disney buying Lucasfilm in 2012. After that, we went from having six mainline Star Wars movies released over a period of 27 years from 1977 to 2005, to five new movies released in as many years. Things got off to a decent start with The Force Awakens in 2015, but by the time we got to Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018 and The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, enthusiasm had flagged and the fans were arguing over which movie was worse: The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker.

Not everyone was like this, obviously; plenty of people enjoyed these movies. And it's not like the Star Wars films had never received backlash; the prequel trilogy had plenty of naysayers when it was coming out in the 2000s.

But under Disney's stewardship, the Star Wars franchise has become fatiguing and bloated in addition to divisive. I chock up most of that to the avalanche of Star Wars TV shows that have come out since 2019: three seasons of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor...and that's not counting the various animated Star Wars series in the mix. Some of these shows have been enjoyable, but only Andor has really distinguished itself as excellent. By and large, the shows feel a little beige: well-made, full of Star Wars iconography like lightsabers and Wookies, but made to order, as if Disney knew it wanted a lot of Star Wars TV series but wasn't particularly concerned that each be more than presentable. It feels like Andor, which is the only show largely uninterested in the Jedi and the Force, is the exception. But even if they were all great, how could people be expected to appreciate each show when there are so damn many?

And that is why it's hard for me to look at The Acolyte with unbridled enthusiasm. For years, every new Star Wars movie was treated as an event, even if it was an event fans would rather not have attended. But Disney has saturated the galaxy to such an extent that I don't assume a Star Wars show or movie will even be worth watching unless there's a lot of positive buzz. They've done this to themselves.

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For the record, early reviews of The Acolyte are pretty mixed; Paste Magazine says it "breathes new life into the Star Wars galaxy," but The Daily Beast calls it "a shocking waste of time." The Mary Sue calls the show "Star Wars at its finest," but USA Today says "the Force is not with...The Acolyte." Disney may have yet another middling effort on its hands that will please some fans and exhaust others to the point of quitting the franchise.

Speaking in 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger showed an awareness that over-saturation is a problem. "I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been," he said. "Marvel’s a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything." A lot of these comments apply just as well to Star Wars.

Iger's epiphany may have come too late to save the franchise from further faint praise; although we could be surprised, I don't see Skeleton Crew, a Star Wars drama aimed at younger viewers, helping the franchise reclaim its crown as the king of pop culture. But as long as that epiphany eventually leads to a change in course, it will be for the better.

As for The Acolyte, I'll keep an eye on it, and I already know people who have enjoyed it thoroughly. But I'm assuming a defensive position until I know the show is good enough for me to relax and enjoy it. And I'll probably stay that way until Disney proves it deserves anything else.

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