A little over a year after the show’s cancellation, “The Acolyte” still remains one of the most contentious pieces of “Star Wars” media produced – and that’s saying something for this franchise.
Despite big launch numbers, viewership dropped off in subsequent episodes, and a soft critical response meant the studio opted not to proceed with a second season.
The series, the first show to be set in the times of the High Republic centuries before the events of “Star Wars,” proved incredibly divisive amongst the fandom. That led to some real passionate and targeted hatred being spewed from some parts of the fandom – a lot of it directed at showrunner and creator Leslye Headland.
During a recent interview with The Wrap, Headland put the show’s cancellation down to “viewership and creative” reasons and says it wasn’t a shock that it was cancelled:
“I was not surprised by it. I think I was surprised at the swiftness of it and the publicness of it. I was surprised by how it was handled. But once I was getting particular phone calls about the reaction and the criticism and the viewership, I felt like ‘OK, the writing’s on the wall for sure.’
The viewership was a little muddled for me, because — and this is my understanding — with ‘Star Wars,’ you’re not just measured within the marketplace that you happen to be in at that time, you’re measured against every other ‘Star Wars’ show. We hit the Nielsens a couple of times, not every week or anything like that, but a couple of times it poked through.
I feel like, for a launch of a first-season show that was trying different things, I think it could have been worth it to allow the audience it was meant for to find it, but that wasn’t up to me. So I fully respect the decision, even if I’m sad about it.”
Talking about the online vitriol targeted at the series, some of it creatively some of it targeted at other aspects, she says the criticism was all valid as it was a risky series in the first place:
“Really the whole thing with ‘The Acolyte’ was always a major risk. It was a new part of the timeline. It was all new characters. It was a part of the lore where you couldn’t use a Storm Trooper, you didn’t have the reference of the politics and war that Tony Gilroy has brilliantly exploited in such a genius way in
Andor’.I also think that any gripes creatively with the show are completely valid. That’s people’s reaction. It’s usually their reaction to their own reaction. But like I said the show was always a risk. It’s the old adage of the first one through the wall is the bloodiest.”
Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Manny Jacinto starred in the series and despite all that happened, Headland says she remains a fan of the property: “I have no regrets, and I’m absolutely obsessed with Star Wars. I still am, and I love my show, and I know that it was wonderful.”
