Despite scoring highly on Rotten Tomatoes, and despite one of our writers finding the series restored his faith in the Star Wars franchise, The Acolyte has been canceled, according to a new report.
Lucasfilm has decided not to pursue a second season of the Star Wars spinoff, a decision made a month after the series ended its run on Disney Plus, according to Deadline. The series starred Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-Jae, Manny Jacinto and Dafne Keen.
The Acolyte got off to a strong start, with the first two episodes racking up over 4.8 million views when it premiered on June 4, becoming the most-watched series to launch on Disney Plus this year. That number has climbed to 11.1 million views after just five days on the platform.
That said, the series has divided longtime fans of the franchise, with critics suggesting that the series “simply should have been better,” comparing it to successful Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian and Andor.
Questions Left Unanswered at the End of Season 1
Warning: spoilers ahead.
In The Acolyte's finale, viewers were left with an endless stream of unanswered questions. And now, thanks to the cancellation announcement, we're forced to speculate endlessly about how the series will end.
For starters, fans were treated to an appearance from a very familiar Jedi Master: Yoda. Master Yoda is alive and well at the time of The Acolyte, which takes place a century before the movie “The Phantom Menace.” However, this cameo from the little green Jedi Master no longer has any deeper significance now that the series has come to a rather unfortunate end.
Additionally, the latest episode gave an intriguing glimpse of who is supposed to be Darth Plagueis the Wise, a villainous Sith Lord. While he is not explicitly identified, his story is told to Anakin Skywalker by Chancellor Palpatine in “Revenge of the Sith,” where Darth Plagueis' story ends when he is killed by his apprentice, who is none other than Palpatine himself. Fans have speculated that this Plagueis sighting could mean that Qimir (Manny Jacinto) is a young Palpatine — but alas, we'll never truly know.
Luckily, Disney Plus still has several Star Wars series in the works, including Skeleton Crew, which debuts in December, and Andor season 2, slated for early 2025.