The Disney+ ‘Star Wars’ series The Acolyte has officially been axed after only one season, according to Deadline.
The first season concluded its eight-episode run a little over a month ago (16 July, 2024) with an open-ended finale that teased potential plots to come.
Showrunner Lesley Headland has revealed in interviews that she pitched a Season 2 outline to Lucasfilm, hinting at further development of the relationship between Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Qimir (Manny Jacinto), and a secondary plot about Darth Plagueis (who was seen hiding in a cave in the finale).
The Acolyte, which is set a century before Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menace, focused on a young force-user and her twin, the latter of whom is accused of murdering a number of Jedi. It gained a 78% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but was simultaneously ‘review bombed’ by people lashing out at its casting of POC in the lead roles (see the 18% audience score).
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Alongside the leads Amandla Stenberg and Manny Jacinto, the series also stars Lee Jung-jae, Jodie Turner-Smith, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman and Carrie-Anne Moss.
The series premiere was Disney+’s biggest of the year in terms of viewership (it generated 4.8 million views in its first day on the streaming service). That soon dropped off however, and The Acolyte dropped out of the Disney+ Top 10 in its third week, and pulled in one of the smallest audiences for a Star Wars series finale ever.
While The Acolyte has been cancelled, other Star Wars series like The Mandalorian and Andor will be continuing on Disney+. The Mandalorian does not have any plans to end yet, with an upcoming film spinoff in the works called The Mandalorian & Grogu. Andor, on the other hand, will finish after Season 2, when its story leads directly into the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
