The Acolyte is another installment in Disney+’s expansive Star Wars universe offering, set 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace. It’s been well-received by critics but absolutely trashed by audiences, with an average of 1.5 stars on Google Reviews. Does that mean it’s been canceled before it’s even finished its season 1 run? There are lots of rumors to unpack.
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The speculation first started on That Park Place, with an unnamed source supposedly from LucasFilm saying, “Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte is DoA [dead on arrival]. Unless there’s a miracle of ratings, this is a one-and-done proposition.” He explained, “It looks to me like John Knoll is no longer going to be actively meeting with Headland to collaborate on S2.” (We’re not sure how this particular outlet vets their sources, FYI).
The insider said that the show’s alleged cancellation wasn’t because of “aggressive trolls” that flooded the trailer on YouTube with negative comments and more than half a million dislikes. “For now the negative reaction for the trailer is being labeled as aggressive trolls irrelevant to the market,” they said.
So is The Acolyte canceled?
Not officially, no—Disney+ has neither confirmed nor denied the show will continue. Showrunner Leslye Headland may have hinted at the existence of a second season when she revealed that a major plot point—the Sith Lord—had been reserved for season 2 but the actor’s screentest was so good, they fast-tracked it.
“This is an interesting tidbit: Originally, even up until shooting, The Stranger was not in a lot of the rest of the season. He was much more of a tee-up for a second-season arc,” she told Inverse. “But I saw Manny’s screen test early on in pre-production, and I just thought, ‘There will be riots in the streets if I don’t [go further]. Here we go. I guess I’m rewriting an episode.’ Manny was so impressive in every aspect.
There’s another way to interpret this, though. Headland could also be saying that a season 2 no longer exists, which is why they bumped up the big reveal.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on June 27, Headland used the word “if” when discussing The Acolyte season 2. “[Qimir] wants freedom to be able to be who he is and wield his power the way he wants to. But he also wants freedom on a second level that I think we’ll get more into if we get a season 2.”
She continued: “I’ll tell you my philosophy on first seasons. Something that I’ve noticed is first seasons will end on what should have been the break into Act Two. It feels like everyone’s really expecting to get a second season, and I don’t feel that’s a good idea,” she said.
“I think you should put everything you can into the first season and give the audience a nice resolution that feels satisfying, but enough nods to mysteries that you would want to see a second season. So it’s a little bit of both. You don’t want to leave it so wrapped up that, like Obi-Wan or a standalone mini-series, that there’s no reason to watch a second season, but I think there’s enough stuff in the last few episodes that you would want to have answered.”
The Acolyte is available to stream on Disney+ with new episodes dropping each Tuesday.
