Will The Acolyte return for season two? Cancellation rumours explored as finale airs
Amandla Stenberg plays twin sisters Osha and Mae in Star Wars: The Acolyte. (YouTube/Star Wars/Disney+)
As The Acolyte looks at wrapping up its debut season, fans are asking whether Disney will be renewing it for season two.
Although no announcement has been made about The Acolyte season two, there is reason to be optimistic: Disney often renew Star Wars shows like Andor and The Mandalorian for multiple seasons due to the franchise’s overwhelming popularity.
Premiering last month, The Acolyte takes place 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, exploring a series of Jedi murders by a powerful dark-force user and investigating who is behind the gruesome deaths.
The show stars Lee Jung-jae as Sol, Amandla Stenberg as Osha and Mae, and Manny Jacinto.
Showrunner Leslye Headland originally pitched The Acolyte as a multi-season project so the finale – airing on July 16 – will likely leave some storylines open for the show to explore further in season two.
But, fans don’t need to worry – the season one finale will provide a satisfying conclusion to the mysteries put forward in earlier episodes.
Headland previously told Entertainment Weekly: “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 [their shows] to get a second season, and I don’t feel that’s a good idea. I threw everything into season one, because who knows what’s going to happen?”
Despite putting her all into season one, she did say that she has “four or five major mysteries” she’d like to explore in season two, if the show does get renewed.
In a recent interview with Nerdist, Headland teased that “there are conversations” happening behind-the-scenes about renewing the show but nothing has been confirmed yet.
“I don’t know when that decision will be made,” she said.
Reviews for The Acolyte have been mostly positive from critics, earning an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but have been more divisive among fans, receiving just a 14% score on the review website.
But, this low score could be due to the show being review-bombed by some who were unhappy with the inclusive nature of the show.
The series previously faced a backlash after casting trans, non-binary, and Black actors, with Forbes saying the poor reviews were linked to the “racism, misogyny, and overall harassment of the cast which has poisoned every conversation about the show”.
Headland told The New York Times that she doesn’t consider “anyone who engages in bigotry, racism, or hate speech” a fan of the franchise.
Although the show has been received positively by critics and some fans, data from analytics company Nielsen suggests that The Acolyte has some of the lowest viewership of any Star Wars shows on Disney+ apart from Andor.
The Acolyte has half the viewership of Ahsoka and is 75% lower than The Mandalorian, both part of the Star Wars franchise.
This doesn’t mean that it won’t come back for season two, as Andor has already been renewed – and The Acolyte did break Disney+ streaming record after its premiere in June.
But, The Acolyte‘s future is up in the air. Forbes said that it might be unlikely that the show is renewed due to the exorbitant cost of production.
“Estimates of the cost of The Acolyte put it at $180 million for what are effectively eight, thirty-minute episodes,” according to Forbes, suggesting the high cost in comparison to the low viewership numbers might not be worth it for Disney to renew.
So, there are arguments on either side for why The Acolyte may or may not be renewed but there is no concrete answer.
It is due to this uncertainty that #RenewTheAcolyte has been trending online in recent days, as fans have been expressing their desire for a second season.
In particular, fans have highlighted the strengths of the show and the excellent casting choices – as well as the budding romance between Stenberg and Jacinto’s characters that could be the focus of a new season.
It is unclear whether this will sway Disney in either direction so fans will have to look for clues in the finale to see whether it teases a new story in season two.
The Acolyte season one finale airs on July 16 and is available to watch on Disney+.
