The Cancelation Of ‘The Acolyte’ Is Good News And More ‘Star Wars’ Shows Deserve The Same Treatment

Goodbye to The Acolyte! The Star Wars show received its marching orders from Disney+ with the announcement there would be no second season. While fans of the series campaign for it to be saved, it’s good news that Lucasfilm and Disney+ had the courage to pull the plug here. Why, you may ask? Well, let’s face it: The Acolyte is more Star Wars for the sake of it. It isn’t the only culprit, though. Star Wars, as a franchise, finds itself in a state of disarray, becoming solely a product for consumption rather than a story that invigorates generations of fans. The childlike sense of wonder of a galaxy far, far away seems a lifetime away, leaving only a shell of what was once great…

Even George Lucas isn’t a fan of the Disneyfied Star Wars

Star Wars creator George Lucas knew it was a gamble handing over the keys to the franchise to Disney, though he received enough moolah to make snow angels in the piles of money for the rest of his days. Even so, Lucas admitted he was surprised that Disney didn’t consult him about the latest film trilogy, believing the House of Mouse would have asked him for input since he started the story.

“I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was … who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it,” Lucas said at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter). “The Force, for example, nobody understood the Force. When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.”

Lucas sums up the problem with Disney’s Star Wars perfectly in his statement: No one understands the core of what makes Star Wars, well, Star Wars. Both the movies and Disney+ series demonstrate how the people involved identify the specific iconography and significant cultural beats, but they don’t connect with the soul of the franchise. Hence the reason everything feels like a bad David Guetta-produced remix of the original tale. If they don’t know what Star Wars is, they’re doomed to create what they think it is.

The Acolyte isn’t the only show that’s a remix of everything Star Wars

When someone adds a new installment to a franchise, two questions need to be asked. One, does this address a longstanding question or part of the story that no one has covered before? And two, does this push the franchise forward in a significant manner? In the case of Disney+’s Star Wars shows, they are a little like Wile E. Coyote running on a treadmill over a cliff. They think they’re doing something, but they ultimately spin off in another direction and fall flat. 

Apart from The Mandalorian, which dives into the history of the Mandalorians and Mandalore (though it has also had its issues in later seasons as it operates as a way to set up a billion other stories and series), everything else feels like corporate fan fiction at its finest. These shows exist as purely content for Disney+ to put out in an effort to build a sizable catalog. They aren’t in the business of creating unforgettable stories to be told for generations or to forge new legacies. They’re lightsaber battles, fleeting references to the source material, feeble attempts at one-liners, and the familiar musical stings to say, “See, we have Star Wars shows every month, so subscribe to Disney+ and don’t share your password with your cheap relatives.”

Where’s the magic? Where’s the passion? These shows are paint-by-numbers and safer than a middle manager’s position in a non-performing team. Right now, Star Wars is no different than series like CSI, which only exist to tell the derivatives of the same story over and over again to an audience who wants to play on their phone while vaguely paying attention to what’s happening. Don’t blame the fans for this, though, since there’s no compelling reason for people to put down their phones and pay attention either. It’s vanilla entertainment designed to pass the time – not to captivate the mind.

If Disney struggles to find a good story to tell, then leave it alone

In 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that the company would be cutting down on the number of Star Wars and Marvel shows it makes moving forward. He admitted how it had released a lot of content to build up the Disney+ streaming service, but it needed to trim down the offerings in the future in order to remain sustainable. “You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative,” Iger said. “Spending less on what we make, and making less.”

Of course, Iger speaks CEO here, since his statement is all about the bottomline. However, this also serves as an acknowledgement that Disney knows the harm and reputational damage that the Star Wars brand suffered in recent times. Naturally, the company won’t ever say – publicly – that the shows and movies are dumpster fires, but there’s an undisputed awareness that there’s a disturbance in the Force.

Whether Disney possesses the acumen to fix this, though, remains open for debate. After all, it’s a corporate company, driven by profit margins and shareholders demanding new yachts. It will be loyal to the dollar – not creativity – in the end. That said, Star Wars – well, the original series at least – teaches fans about the importance of hope and realizing all is not lost when it appears so. Perhaps common sense prevails and someone comes along who treats the franchise with the respect it deserves. Cut out all the nonsense, cancel all the deliberate cash-grabs, and hang ten if need be until the right story materializes. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, it’s time for Disney and Lucasfilm to take a step back, find the magic again, and return with the Force by its side the next time instead of pumping out content like it’s a factory.