What Does ‘The Acolyte’s’ Poor Reception Means for the Future of the Star Wars Franchise?

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ released its final episode. The overall run of the show was marked with numerous controversies ranging from review-bombing and review-boosting to death threats.

Even before the show premiered there was considerable backlash generated by some statements made by the cast and crew, most of which turned out to be untrue for the most part, especially statements related to the overall wokeness of the show.

Even though perhaps some of the things critiqued when it comes to the overall quality of the show were exaggerated and without merit, we cannot deny that in terms of pure numbers, ‘The Acolyte’ was far from a successful show.

Latest Nielsen numbers revealed that the show is second-lowest watched in terms of “minutes-watched,” having only ‘Andor’ behind. There’s been talk regarding the potential season 2, but as we analyzed recently, at this point it seems highly unlikely.

We know that there are several live-action projects currently in development, Mangold’s Star Wars movies, Rey’s standalone movie, Mandalorian & Grogu, ‘Ahsoka’ season 2, and the looming release of ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.’

So, how will ‘The Acolyte’ reflect on these shows & movies? Well for starters, ‘Skeleton Crew’ will undoubtedly be heavily criticized on the release beacuse like ‘The Acolyte’ it deviates from what fans are expecting of Star Wars.

‘Skeleton Crew’ is a coming-of-age story, that focuses on a group of children. It has a solid premise and a solid cast, but it’s not like fans are hyped to see Star Wars retelling from that perspective. It’s unusual for the studio to release two “experimental” projects with so little time in between, and the backlash toward ‘The Acolyte’ might in part transfer toward that show as well.

The studio might feel less reluctant to invest in live-action High Republic projects and less prone to experiment with shows, now that the first High Republic project has had the lowest audience score that the franchise has ever seen. I guess I feel like we are going to miss out on a lot due to ‘The Acolyte’ being a poorly constructed and expensive show.

‘Ahsoka’ and ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ likely won’t suffer from the consequences of what ‘The Acolyte’ has done. ‘Ahsoka’ had a pretty decent fanbase even before the show was released, and it turned out to be miles ahead in quality when compared to ‘The Acolyte,’ it’s “cliffhanger” ending led your average consumer to become invested in the season 2 story.

‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ are marketing and commercial hits, it looks like when it comes to your average viewers, not entirely invested in the Star Wars universe and lore, the show can’t do any wrong.

Rey’s upcoming standalone movie is already facing controversies based on some of the statements made by the director, and the fact that the movie for now won’t lead to another trilogy shows that the studio has little faith in it as well.

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

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