TOP 10: Things We’ll Miss About “Star Wars: The Acolyte”
Disney announced yesterday that it has cancelled its Star Wars series “The Acolyte,” meaning that we will not get Season 2 of the Disney+ show. We are incredibly bummed by this news. While the first season wasn’t without fault, it was an intriguing series that explored the Jedi in an entirely different way, with some fascinating characters and mysteries.
We would have loved for “The Acolyte” to get a second season. In honor of the show we’re putting forward this Top 10 list of elements we’re specifically disappointed will not be explored further.
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10. The Coven Was Super Interesting
Personally I am fascinated by the Nightsisters, the Force witches who have appeared in a few Star Wars properties at this point, and which were the impetus for “The Acolyte.” We only got flashbacks to this coven, and there’s so much left unexplained, including the ritual they were preparing the girls for (which the Jedi interrupted) and their overall motives. They seemed isolationist when compared to the coven we saw in “Ahsoka,” which was clearly aligned with the Empire/Sith. I guess we’ll have to wait for “Ahsoka” Season 2 to get more insight into these unconventional Force users.
9. No More Light Saber Whip!
Vernestra, commander of the Jedis we saw in “The Acolyte,” was not an overwhelmingly successful part of Season 1. Between the dodgy make-up/special effect application and the wooden acting, she often left me frustrated. But when she pulled out that purple light-saber whip? I was seated. I need to see more of that baby in action.
8. No Yoda Follow-Up
Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger, with Vernestra going to Yoda for guidance after being put on notice by the Galactic Senate. Even if you are highly critical of contemporary Star Wars, Yoda is almost always a crowd pleaser, and I don’t believe we have ever seen him at this point in his life span. A shame we still won’t.
7. No More High Republic
To my knowledge, this is the only Star Wars live-action property to be set in the High Republic era, the setting that has been explored in books and comics for the past several years. Set several hundred years before the events of even the prequels, the High Republic features a wilder, less colonized galaxy, with the Jedi essentially acting as the lawmen of the interstellar Wild West. There’s plenty of narrative meat there, and I worry that we won’t be seeing any more of that explored on screen given Disney’s lack of faith in this project.
6. The Jedi Reckoning
I know multiple people frustrated by Season 1’s treatment of the Jedi, specifically painting them in a morally complicated light instead of just “the good guys.” I will join the chorus who were deeply confused by Sol’s motives for most of the season, and then Vernestra’s wholesale shoving of him under the bus at the end. But even if you are uncomfortable with that characterization of the Jedi, you have to admit it IS interesting to have the Senate demanding some level of checks and balances for what is, essentially, a private militarized cult. I would love to see how that played out, especially given how neutered the Jedi were by the time the prequels began. There’s an interesting arc there that we’ll probably never see.
6. Those Fight Sequences
Even the people who criticized “The Acolyte” seemed to agree that the light-saber fights were incredible. And they were. Several of the episodes had monumental Jedi-on-Sith or Jedi-on-Jedi battles that left our mouths agape. Personally I will miss seeing more of those on my screen, given how few Star Wars shows actually feature the Jedi prior to them being wiped out. (I will not, however, miss watching Jedi get killed over and over again, which I do think was a major issue for many viewers. There were multiple fascinating characters who got iced far, far too quickly.)
5. No Sith Name/Backstory for Qimir
It is legit bonkers to me that we were introduced to one of the most exciting new Sith characters in, literally, decades (sorry Kylo Ren, you don’t count), and yet we never got his Sith name. I was at San Diego Comic-Con last month and all the merchandise for him was titled The Stranger. I’m sorry, that cannot be his name. That’s terrible. We were teased with backstory for Qimir — sure seems like he and Vernestra had a past — and we’re never going to get that now. What a shame. Justice for Qimir!
4. Was That Darth Plagueis?!
Speaking of Sith, in the final episode of “The Acolyte,” we got a glimpse of this creep, who most internet sleuths believe may be the legendary Darth Plagueis. You might recall that name as the supremely powerful Sith who found a way to cheat death, namedropped by Shiv Palpatine while trying to sway Anakin Skywalker to his side. If that really WAS Darth Plagueis, does that mean he was the Sith master, and The Stranger was the apprentice? The Stranger’s entire mission seemed to be to find his own apprentice — what would that have meant for Plagueis, given the Rule of Two? There’s so much left unanswered here, and our first on-screen appearance of Plagueis was actually a big moment for the Star Wars canon overall. What could have been…
3. A Resolution to the Mae/Osha Mystery
A lot of people had issues with Mae and Osha, the central twins (well, kind of) that drove much of the action for “The Acolyte,” the adult version of both played by Amandla Stenberg. I’m not going to tell you that their arcs were without flaw. I’m not going to tell you that the decisions made by these characters, and regarding these characters, always made sense. But I am going to maintain that some interesting themes were being explored here, some of which sure seemed like they related to both Anakin’s origin (the “virgin birth”), the Kylo/Rey Force connection, and even potentially the very origins of The Force, established in “Clone Wars” and seemingly being explored more in “Ahsoka.” And now we’ll never get a sense of where that was going. A pity. I would have loved to see how Osha’s story unfolded as a burgeoning Sith.
2. No More Shirtless Manny Jacinto
First of all, How dare you, Disney? Secondly, Again, how very dare you? You introduce us to this absolutely gorgeous man and strip him down for, I believe, the most nudity we’ve gotten since Leia on Jabba’s barge, and then you yank him away from us? And you cancelled the show on his BIRTHDAY? Monsters!
1. Caving to the Worst Kind of “Fans”
I’m going to be real blunt here: I think a lot of the pushback to this show comes down to racism and misogyny. I genuinely do. I’m not saying “The Acolyte” was perfect. It wasn’t. I was frustrated by elements of it myself. But it is absolutely not a coincidence that every time one of these properties has a female lead — much less a lead of color — they get review bombed. Look at the disparity between the critic reviews of this show and the audience score. Hell, they don’t even need to be lead characters. Look at the intense online bullying campaign against the actress who played Rose Tico in Episode VIII simply because she had the audacity to be an Asian woman in Star Wars.
Every fandom has its problems. Many of them develop toxic traits and narratives. It is inevitable, especially for one that has been around since the 1970s, and which has multiple generations that believe “their” Star Wars is the only “real” Star Wars. But this fandom is especially hostile to the property it purports to love, with most of the content post-Return of the Jedi suffering intense scrutiny and criticism. That has only gotten more intense in the internet age, and for stories that do not center on white male protagonists. I have said it once, I’ll say it again: Nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars “fans.” The complete disconnect between the spirit of the franchise and the behaviors of its worst voices is, frankly, mindboggling to me.
Do you disagree? Were there other elements of “The Acolyte” that you’ll miss? Drop them in the comments.