Star Wars’ Latest Sith, Manny Jacinto Answers Fan Backlash Related to ‘The Acolyte’: “There’s always a very passionate group that doesn’t like change”
‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ is the most recent and most controversial Star Wars installment, perhaps ever. The show attracted plenty of negative attention even before it was released due to some strange comments made by the cast and crew, and things did not get better once the show was released.
There was a notable decrease in quality when compared to previous Star Wars live-action shows, and the fan reception has been vastly polarizing, with some considering it the best and some, the worst thing to ever happen to Star Wars canon.
One of the characters however that managed to stand out in the overall story was Manny Jacinto’s Qimir aka The Stranger, the latest Sith introduced to the canon. Fans took a liking to Qimir despite his “secret” being quite obvious. For a time, he was the only redeeming quality regarding the show, and plenty of fans demanded to see season 2 of the Acolyte due to his character alone.
Whether the fans are demanding to see more of him due to physical reasons, or his character development is not the topic of this article, but we have to admit that he is not nearly as often a target of attacks as some other characters in the show. This is why Jacinto was the perfect person to weigh in all the backlash, and instances of review-bombing.
In his latest interview with GQ, Jacinto commented on all the backlash, and he claims that he understands why fans might be angry with the current direction of the franchise:
“It’s a cycle….With everything that’s come out since the original trilogy, there’s always a very passionate group that doesn’t like change, that wants that same feeling that they experienced when they were kids, only now they’ve grown up and their taste has matured and they’re more critical about art or the world, and then they are just more precious about the things that they experienced when they were younger.”
His sentiment echoes something that George Lucas recently said. The creator of the franchise commented on all the backlash that the prequel trilogy received but he explained it as people experiencing what is basically a kids’ movie while they are much older and attributes all the criticism to that.
We can’t ignore that ‘The Acolyte’ had some serious issues with pacing, writing, acting, and scripting, but I’m sure that in time, fans will learn to appreciate it in its own way – just like they did with the prequels.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
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