Exactly as I said, The Acolyte was canceled because no one watched it. Clearly, Disney couldn’t justify spending another exorbitant amount of money on a second season.
It’s known that thanks to the Nielsen ratings which Disney+ automatically has turned in your accounts that The Acolyte is among the least-watched Star Wars shows on Disney+. To put things into context, The Acolyte was watched by 75% less fans than watched The Mandalorian.
Reportedly, the series cost north of $200 million and the massive failure has led to Disney cutting back and killing Star Wars content.
“Wasn’t where we needed it to be“
Now, a Disney executive has confirmed it wasn’t worth continuing the series.
Alan Bergman, who serves as a co-chair of Disney Entertainment which includes overseeing Disney streaming, recently spoke with Vulture. Hilariously, the writer of the article tries to make it sounds as if The Acolyte is a big success, however, Bergman’s response quickly shuts down that fake narrative. His carefully crafted statement is obvious PR spin to soften the blow:
Vulture: Staying on the franchise front, let’s talk Star Wars. It feels like it’s had a bumpier road of late compared to Marvel. The Acolyte had many strong reviews and did well in the ratings its first week out, but you ultimately opted against a second season. Why didn’t you move forward? And can you offer any hint as to how Skeleton Crew is doing, or its future?
Bergman: So as it relates to Acolyte, we were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season two. So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that.
What Bergman is really saying is the few amount of people that watched the first season doesn’t justify a Season 2. So it’s canceled.
Fans blamed
Recall how the cast of the series blamed fans for The Acolyte getting canceled.
Amandla Stenberg released a weird rage-twerking video where she blasted right-wingers, and following the series getting canceled she released a strange and weird selfie-video of herself blaming fans:
“For those who aren’t aware, there has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced, when it was still just a concept that no one had even seen it.”
She continued and thanked the fans that did like the show for their support and said the targeted attack wasn’t just about disliking the show but was rooted in deeper, more troubling societal issues:
“I just want to let those people know out there who supported us in that way, and supported us vocally despite and in the face of all of the vitriol that we received and the kind of the targeted attack, I would say we received by the alt right, just about you were deeply loved, appreciated, and it made this job all the worthwhile for me.”
I suppose the fans are really to blame as they didn’t show up, but it has more to do with The Acolyte simply being a bad series. How’d it work out?
