‘The Acolyte’ Likely Won’t Get a Second Season – and It Has Nothing To Do With Being Woke

This week we’re awaiting the finale of ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ one of the most controversial shows in the Star Wars franchise. The show has had a lukewarm critical reception and horrific social reception, most of it tied to things unrelated to the show.

Just about any aspect of ‘The Acolyte’ has been scrutinized in great detail, something that likely would never happen if it wasn’t marketed as the “gayest Star Wars show ever.” The show did not turn out to be “woke,” but it did disappoint in regards to quality, in my subjective opinion.

Now in recent weeks, there’s been talk about potential plans for season 2 of the show. Headland claimed that she would like to get at least three or four seasons. She admitted that she threw everything at it for season 1 but there would be no problem in regard to setting up some new mysteries for season 2. She’s also admitted that there have been conversations related to the continuation of the show, but it’s too early to know what kind of plans Lucasfilm and Disney have for this highly controversial show.

If we look at the show objectively, leaving all our grievances aside, ‘The Acolyte’ is extremely unlikely to get a second season, but it’s a numbers game. Back when the show first premiered there’s been talk that ‘The Acolyte’ turned out to be one of the most expensive live-action shows in the franchise, with a reported budget of $180M for 8 short-ish episodes.

This is an incredible amount of money and I’m still sometimes wondering where it was used. Sure the show does have some flashy lightsaber action that was brilliantly choreographed and CGI’d, but I don’t feel like it’s enough to justify such a ballooned-up budget, taking into account that the show spent $49M on pre-production alone.

The money wouldn’t be a problem if the show drew audiences to the platform, but alas that did not happen. The show scored pretty high during the first 14 days when the first three episodes were released, but following episode 3 viewership fell and never really recovered.

The latest Nielsen numbers show that ‘The Acolyte’ has the second-lowest viewership, having better numbers only when compared to ‘Andor.’

‘Andor’ is a perfect example to use as a comparison for ‘The Acolyte.’ The show had an extremely high budget of $250M, it also has the lowest streaming numbers. But the show did score a second season, the last we heard it was undergoing reshoots.

So, why can’t ‘The Acolyte’ get a second season as well? Lucasfilm and Disney are more likely to invest in something that technically loses them money but has great reviews and critical reception, and despite having the lowest everything, ‘Andor’ is still hailed as the best live-action show in the Star Wars franchise.

‘The Acolyte’ doesn’t have that privilege, if anything it hurts the image of the company, it’s expensive, has bad viewership numbers, and it has terrible critical reception. This is an “L” on all possible sides.

Disney was already in a tight financial spot, having lost quite a bit of money on their flagship franchise, MCU. Now everything depends on how ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ does in terms of box-office, even though the studio did announce that they are limiting their creative output, focusing more on quality over quantity.

Losing so much money, with no hope of recovering it, Disney might be less likely to invest in something they know won’t work.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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