Disney cancelled Star Wars show The Acolyte and people are fuming

Rip to the lesbian space witches

3 months ago

Social media has felt a great disturbance in the Force after Star Wars cancelled The Acolyte, a Star Wars show starring diverse and LGBTQ+ cast members, following bigoted backlash.

Deadline reported that Disney has decided not to go ahead with a second season.

The first episode premiered on 4 June and racked up 11.1 million views in the first five days – way more than the 4 million views the first episode of the new Doctor Who series got, or the 6 million views the season 4 premiere of The Umbrella Academy got, or even the 7.8 million views that the House of The Dragon season 2 premiere received in the first week of streaming. The Acolyte was the biggest series premiere on Disney+ so far this year.

Critics praised the show for its snazzy lightsabre scenes and character development. The show had plenty of easter eggs that linked to Star Wars lore, like a cameo from the long-alluded to villain Darth Plagueis.

So many pretty lightsabres
(Credit: Disney+)

The show featured Abigail Thorn, the first out trans actor to appear in Star Wars.

However, the show was review-bombed by Star Wars viewers who couldn’t cope with queer people of colour being in a Star Wars show. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes plummeted to just 13 per cent – the lowest of any film or show in the franchise.

The third episode – which featured lesbian space witches – had an especially low IMDB audience score of 3.7/10.

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The show’s star Amandla Stenberg, who is non-binary, released a song in June calling out the “intolerable racism” that they’d experienced.

Viewership began to decline after the first three episodes, and approximately 7 million people watched the finale.

People are unimpressed that Disney has cancelled one of its most diverse fantasy shows.

They canceled The Acolyte because they couldn’t stand the sight of two hot people of colour holding hands but I will always remember! pic.twitter.com/d5lp9Z4MhB

— Dr. Danielle (@danies394) August 20, 2024

One X user wrote: “They cancelled The Acolyte because they couldn’t stand the sight of two hot people of colour holding hands, but I will always remember!”

The Acolyte being cancelled is just another example of toxic internet hate. The show never got a chance to breathe and half the people hating on it never even watched an episode.

It’s not my favorite piece of Star Wars content but it certainly didn’t deserved to be axed. pic.twitter.com/xAb8BTRT0D

— Alec🦇 (@alecsm7) August 19, 2024

Someone else wrote on X: “The Acolyte being cancelled is just another example of toxic internet hate. The show never got a chance to breathe and half the people hating on it never even watched an episode. It’s not my favorite piece of Star Wars content but it certainly didn’t deserved to be axed.”

The worst part about THE ACOLYTE being canceled isn't the cancelation itself, but knowing exactly which part of the Star Wars fanbase Disney listened to in order to go ahead with this decision. Stop caving to pressure and stand your ground if you've made something bold FOR ONCE.

— Shaurya Chawla (@_ShauryaChawla) August 19, 2024

Another X user wrote: “The worst part about The Acolyte being canceled isn’t the cancelation itself, but knowing exactly which part of the Star Wars fanbase Disney listened to in order to go ahead with this decision. Stop caving to pressure and stand your ground if you’ve made something bold for once.”

Several Reddit users felt disappointed that Disney has cancelled a show with new characters in, while continuing to create more content with existing characters whose stories have already been told in 50-year-old films.

One Reddit user wrote: “Great. I hope the most boring people on the planet are happy. They got what they wanted. Let’s just endlessly spiral in the Empire era relying entirely on nearly 50 year old movies to inform every creative decision. Genuinely mad about this.”

Another commented: “They are unable to take barely any risks, the risks they have taken have failed due to people who launch hate campaigns before the shows are even out, and now were going to be stuck in the same stories over and over until star wars is truly rotten and dead.”