Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman confirmed that ‘The Acolyte’s fate was sealed due to its hefty budget rather than divisive reactions among ‘Star Wars’ fans. In an interview with Vulture, Bergman explained the decision to end the series after an eight-episode run.
“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. ‘Skeleton Crew’ is in process now, so we’ll see. We’ve seen some growth on that. We’ll see how that goes. As you said, the reviews have been excellent on ‘Skeleton Crew,’ so we’ll have to see how that all plays out as it moves forward.”
The series initially showed promise, airing on June 4 of this year with an impressive 4.8 million views on its first day, making it Disney+’s biggest series premiere of the year. Within five days, the viewership reached 11.1 million globally. However, momentum weakened after the series’ strong Nielsen ratings debut in 7th place (488 million minutes watched). Despite rising to 6 the following week, the series fell out of the Top 10 in Week 3, only to return for its finale with the lowest viewing figures of any ‘Star Wars’ series on the platform (335 million minutes).
Lead actor Amandla Stenberg addressed the cancellation on Instagram Stories, saying, “There are many folks out there that I want to acknowledge and I want to show appreciation and love and support for, so that’s why I’m hopping on here to talk about this, which is that our ‘Star Wars’ show has been canceled.” They continued, “I’m gonna be transparent and say that it’s not a huge shock for me. 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 and no one had even seen it.”
Despite the controversy, Stenberg maintained a positive outlook. “Even though, of course, I’m very sad about the show being canceled, and I’m sad about us not being able to give people invested in it more, I still just feel a lot of levity and joy around the fact that I got to experience it and that people loved it and that people were so responsive.”
Meanwhile, Bergman expressed optimism about the franchise’s newest addition, ‘Skeleton Crew.’
“We’ve seen some growth on that,” he noted. “As you said, the reviews have been excellent on ‘Skeleton Crew,’ so we’ll have to see how that all plays out as it moves forward.”
‘The Acolyte’s mixed reception included a 78% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
