We Checked To See Whether Fan Campaign Will Be Enough To Save ‘The Acolyte’ – It’s Not Looking Good

If you’re following Star Wars news in the last couple of days, you know that ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ – the latest installment in the franchise, has been canceled after only 8 episodes. The show suffered from controversy even before it aired and its lack of quality on top of a $180 million budget only worsened the situation for everyone involved.

The show started out strong, with viewership numbers being only slightly worse than ‘Ahsoka’s,’ but week after week it was losing viewers, and the criticism on social media only became worse.

Still, the show managed to amass a loyal fandom that’s now petitioning for Disney+ to renew the show. The hashtag #SaveTheAcolyte is trending on X and a petition that was started on Change.org currently has 43,342 signatures. So what are the odds of the show getting renewed?

Well, if you look historically, fans did manage to resurrect some notable shows after being canceled. After FOX canceled ‘Lucifer’ after its third season in 2018, fans launched the #SaveLucifer campaign, which trended worldwide on social media. The outpouring of support caught the attention of Netflix, which picked up the show for additional seasons.

When FOX canceled ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ after five seasons in 2018, fans, including celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Hamill, rallied on social media using #SaveB99. Less than 24 hours after the cancellation, NBC picked up the show.

After ‘Jericho’ was canceled in 2007 after its first season, fans sent over 20 tons of peanuts to CBS headquarters, referencing a line from the show. The campaign worked, and CBS renewed the show for a second season, though it was later canceled again.

After Syfy canceled ‘The Expanse’ in 2018, fans launched a massive campaign, including flying a banner over Amazon Studios in Los Angeles that read #SaveTheExpanse. Jeff Bezos, an outspoken fan of the show, announced shortly after that Amazon Prime Video would pick up the series for additional seasons.

‘Veronica Mars’ was canceled in 2007 after three seasons, but fans never gave up. In 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was launched by the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, and star, Kristen Bell, raising over $5.7 million to fund a movie. The success of the movie led to Hulu reviving the series for a fourth season in 2019.

Now it’s clear that fan campaigns do work, even if the shows and movies still end up being canceled down the line.

‘The Acolyte’ is seemingly in a totally different place currently. First, the show has an extremely bloated budget, and we’ve analyzed this issue two times already comparing it to some of the most highly-rated shows currently that cost much less or somewhat slightly more. Disney is currently facing tough and significant losses, and arguably the company will refuse to spend money on a show that won’t be able to support itself down the line.

Yes, the support is great and all, and the enthusiasm is great, but it won’t pay the bills, except if a Kickstarter campaign is launched and the fans decide to fund the show themselves.

Second, Star Wars fandom is currently facing a crisis, and it doesn’t need any more controversy. Disney and by extension, Kathleen Kennedy are constantly being attacked by fans, for pushing their woke narrative through the projects. It’s something that’s highly subjective but the failure of some Star Wars projects to be profitable proves that Disney is truly on the wrong track when it comes to their target audience.

The show was a critical success after it was released until it suffered rating losses after critics started to review it objectively and not just patting themselves on the back for liking the right socio-political things.

Ultimately, Bob Iger already announced that fans can brace themselves for a reduced creative output in the next several years in the context of the MCU. As we’ve analyzed recently, seemingly the same is true for Lucasfilm and Star Wars as not that many shows are currently in development as the franchise is seemingly trying out new things.

All of these shows that had fan campaigns were genuinely good and had a loyal following that was willing to either finance the show or keep watching until the end. ‘The Acolyte’ unfortunately doesn’t have that, as its true viewer numbers don’t really reflect the hashtag or petition numbers.

The only way through which the show can continue is through a severely slashed budget, and I’m afraid to even think how the show will look (and feel) with a smaller budget.

It’s not that ‘The Acolyte’ doesn’t have a story for the second season, the showrunner already teased some things we can expect in relation to Darth Plagueis and Yoda. But it certainly started in the worst possible way.

Will the fan campaign work? We don’t know, but it’s certainly not looking good at the moment. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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