The Acolyte continues to be one of the most significant sagas of the Disney Star Wars era, given the sheer push and pull of fans and detractors of the show, plus Disney spending insane amounts of money on it compared to the viewership it would ever possibly draw. It was cancelled after season 1, but now there may be at least some small glimmer of hope for a season 2.
Despite Disney speaking to various media outlets about The Acolyte being cancelled thanks to lack of viewership, its cast has been vocal about the harassment from toxic fans they believe are being rewarded by the killing of the show. And while it may indeed be a cost versus viewership decision, I am not entirely convinced the show’s death is set in stone.
The new evidence is from The Stranger himself, Manny Jacinto, who appears to not be giving up hope courtesy of a few quotes from DragonCon this past week.
In one clip he’s asked about one thing he wants to achieve before he dies, and he says, to much applause, season 2 of The Acolyte.
This joins an earlier quote that does not have an attached video where Jacinto reportedly told a fan they were still “fighting” for the show, indicating there still may be some talks behind the scenes about bringing it back in some form or another. The public video certainly lends credence to the idea that yes, this quote is real. The Acolyte would not be the first show to be un-cancelled but it remains a tall order given that viewership was low and the cost was high.
I’ve previously chimed in about all this with the idea that Disney does not need to spend a stupid amount of money on The Acolyte season 2 like they did with season 1. That reportedly cost $180 million and featured things like unnecessary CGI space battles when the best moments of the season were just two characters talking to each other or at its priciest, an extremely cool lightsaber fight in the jungle. The idea is if season 2 can work with a much smaller budget, maybe this can still happen.
There’s also this idea this would be a “symbolic” statement to toxic fans who have celebrated the series’ death like Ewoks banging on Stormtrooper helmets. It would A) push back on the worst parts of the Star Wars fandom by removing a “win” and B) open the door to more non-Skywalker/High Republic projects instead of killing the very first one.
But Disney is not your friend. They are a corporate entity that will very much look at profit/loss above all else. It is not impossible, and I think the Manny quotes are at least a mildly good sign, but it’s certainly not a reversal at this point.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
