The Disney+ Star Wars related property, The Acolyte is reported to not be on the slate for renewal by Deadline Hollywood and The Hollywood Reporter. Dear reader, before you run in terror, know that this piece will not mention Kathleen Kennedy in any way.
I am not here to dispute whether it deserved its demise. Given various analyses of organizations who parse the viewership numbers, The Acolyte simply did not reach whatever economic viewership standards Disney has decided make a property profitable by their company standards. I have read several such analyses and can agree with their underlying logic even as I dispute the necessity of them.
Instead, I am here to question a host of other issues which plague the Star Wars franchise since its inception and its ultimate cult status. More importantly, I want to discuss the future of this long-running franchise as it becomes a casualty of the culture wars of race and representation in modern America.
THE ACOLYTE COST TOO MUCH TO PRODUCE
The Acolyte, also known as Star Wars: The Acolyte was an American science fiction television series created by Leslye Headland for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, set at the end of the High Republic era before the events of the Skywalker Saga, and follows a Jedi investigation into a series of crimes. The Acolyte series had numerous challenges on its own and some of them included:
The most egregious sin this show engaged in was its incredible cost. $180 million was reputed to have been spent on the series. By comparison, the original Star Wars cost $11 million to produce and though this was back in 1977, I have the feeling that production costs have gotten out of hand.
Without realizing it, such costs means every Star Wars series begins its life problematically laden with debt so large, unless it is able to deliver an impossible blockbuster experience resulting in an incomprehensible set of economic indicators, the show is dead as soon as it lands. Every show cannot be a blockbuster, there has to be room on the spectrum for affordable quality television or franchises will price themselves out of business.
THE ACOLYTE’S WRITING WAS LESS THAN IDEAL
There needs to be a revamp of the writers for new franchise series. With the exception of Star Wars: Andor, most of the new series feel emotionally-underwhelming. There doesn’t feel as if there is enough time to get to know the characters or enough characterization to make them WORTH knowing.
The Acolyte’s tepid pacing and lukewarm writing efforts fell short of the emotional mark. This slow development took almost three episodes to begin to gel and in this market, that was too long to hope to hold a modern audience’s limited attention span.
While the overall demeanor of the series felt similar to Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, Amandla Stenberg’s Osha/Mae-ho depictions lacked the intensive history Ahsoka had and thus the fans were more willing to indulge the story’s somewhat cool pacing in the hopes of gaining closure on a beloved character and the previous established story elements.
Osha/Mae had none of that emotional bond and did not establish throughout the entire series. The series relied on lazy coincidence, backstory through flashback (not always a good thing) and creating a duality through Stenberg’s two identities which felt more like a joke than a significant story element. (See: The Parent Trap)
One stand out note for me: The murder of a so-called Jedi Master by a non-Jedi. It’s not impossible, the lore tells us so. What the lore also tells us is one does not just throw knives at Jedi and expect them to die. If we are expected to accept this is possible, then they writers and actors have to SELL that on the screen.
They did not.
Carrie-Ann Moss, whose appearance was highly anticipated in the franchise was not a cause for celebration, it was the loss of what should have been a great addition to the Star Wars legacy. Was this meant to showcase some particularly interesting aspect of Mae’s training or did Carrie-Anne decide she didn’t want to have to spend too much time acting against a greenscreen and a wooden cast? Either way, the dismissal of the character set the dismal tone for this series.
THE ACOLYTE’S HIGH REPUBLIC
Set at the end of the High Republic period, a relatively peaceful time in the Star Wars franchise, the series failed to demonstrate why the period was peaceful, what the destabilizing forces were, and why the Jedi seemed so emotionally inadequate, and technically lacking in terms of their skills in comparison to what fans were expecting to see.
As a long-term fan, I wasn’t certain what to expect from this version of the High Republic, but I did not feel connected to any aspect of it because I didn’t SEE any of it. Viewers can’t expect to be invested in anything they don’t get to experience. The modern Star Wars viewer has subconsciously embedded the Skywalker Era. When an event happens, it is placed mentally within a timeline of worlds, experiences and events they already know. If you are going to change the framework of expectation, you need to BUILD a new series of expectations, so the viewer has stakes and an interest in what is happening.
REPRESENTATION IN THE HIGH REPUBLIC
While we are addressing the High Republic, we have to address the “Witches of Dathomir” segment of the story. Until now, most of the information delivered in the mainstream addresses the planet Dathomir and its inhabitants as powerful force users of a dubious, problematic and often dangerous nature. But those powers were reputed to have been developed because Dathomir was a dangerous world and produced powerful force users because of its lethal challenges to survival.
One of the Star Wars franchises most memorable villains Asajj Ventress, was a Force-sensitive Dathomirian female who was, at various points throughout her life, a Nightsister, a Jedi Padawan, a Dark Jedi and commander in the Confederacy of Independent Systems military and a bounty hunter.
Here was the opportunity to show us the origins of what was expected to be the birth of the Witches of Dathomir, the legendary Nightsisters, and instead we were shown peaceful force-sensitive individuals who are essentially murdered by the Jedi. Was this the beginning of the tensions between the two groups?
We don’t know because the writing didn’t make us care and thanks to a culture war in American culture regarding the racial dynamics of the franchise (which can be simplified as: the expected heroes of Star Wars should be white, male and force-using Jedi) and anything else is attack and lambasted on social media by a loud, minority of fans whose disruption of review sites like Rotten Tomatoes, disrupts any chance of a series which may offer representation of other social groups from gaining ground through media manipulation. Instead the audience avoided it because of the potential hazards presented by such fandom.
THE ACOLYTE’S STYLISTIC CHOICES
Being a fan of the franchise for the entirety of its existence across numerous media, the idea of racial and cultural representation of the franchise’s actors seemed a long time coming. I welcomed the opportunity to see actors from other social groups since Rogue One gave us: Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna, Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker, Chirrut Îmwe played by Donnie Yen, and Baze Malbus played by Jiang Wen, who were featured one of the most racially diverse lineups in Star Wars history and one of the more successful films of the franchise NOT entirely focused on the Skywalkers.
Yet, after this film in 2016, Star Wars fandom has become increasingly polarized and toxic with social media being the primary means by which such fans attack the actors and any other means they can use to cause diverse actors to want to leave or hide from future opportunities in the franchise. In the toxic fans mind, the sooner they can cause such diverse properties to fail, the sooner they can get back to what they consider to be the correct depiction of heroes in the Star Wars franchise.
I was not surprised to hear that the Acolyte which featured two Asian leads, Manny Jacinto, Lee Jung-Jae and a Black woman, Amandla Stenberg would cause the toxic fanbase to lose their goddamn minds, and they did, poisoning the well when they review bombed Rotten Tomatoes and badmouthed the series in every form of social media possible.
Was there something that could have prevent such a toxic response? Disney+’s responses to race-baiting and other such social media behavior never seems to counter such efforts, almost as if they are just as happy if a show fails as succeeds. I know, that is not a fair statement since I can’t know whether Disney’s racist past has anything to do with its racist fan base today.
PERSONALLY, I ENJOYED SOME OF THE ACOLYTE
Personally, I was just as willing to watch The Acolyte despite the fact most of what I knew of the franchise was not being demonstrated effectively by either the writers or the directors and unlike the toxic fans, I was willing to wait until the end of the series to have an opinion and not spoil everyone else’s opportunity to decide if the series could have a future.
Was the Acolyte just a case of too much Star Wars, too fast? Or was it a series of missed steps, writing, costumes, visuals, pacing, or should we place a hefty portion of the blame not just on the lackluster production quality, but on the toxic fandom who could have spent their energy talking about how they support the effort of spending $180 million and convincing Disney to improve its product, not shutter it. Whether we like it or not, fans have an outsized importance to new productions and it doesn’t take a lot of fans to torpedo a new series for whatever reason they deem important.
The Acolyte died a dismal death, due to lackluster writing, a failure to bring the vision of the High Republic into view in what was to be one of the first filmed works of its kind. It was choked to death in its infancy due to an intolerant, racist fandom unable to and unwilling to allow the Star Wars franchise, which has demonstrated a significant reliance and dependence on white actors and their associated heroism to DEFINE Star Wars.
That so-called definition, based in culture war politics, has made it such that no other group of people feel welcome or are allowed to participate unless they are willing to accept being abused, their roles being questioned, their acting derided and their personal lives assaulted by fans whose sole action is to drive minority actors away from the franchise by their toxic rhetoric.
FANS SHOULD MATTER, BUT ONLY TO A POINT
Many readers of this document will say I making too much of the racial element of the franchise’s culture wars, but almost every actor who has been a minority on the set of a Star Wars franchise has experienced challenges after their role became public knowledge. Despite the high ratings by critics on Rotten Tomatoes at 78%, the fan response of 18% appears to be all anyone can pay attention to. Cries of “wokeness” and anti-LGBTQIA rants on social media drown out any other conversation. When the toxic fandom is emboldened they will attack the actors in those roles making this an assault against protected groups.
This includes Kelly Marie Tran, who played Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Finn, played by John Boyega, a former Storm Trooper who had been hinted at being a Jedi but was bait-and-switched much to the chagrin of fans everywhere. Ahmed Best, known for his voice-over work of Jar Jar Binks and his later redemption as the Jedi, Kelleran Beq in episode four of The Mandalorian, talks in the Guardian about how his treatment at the hands of fans made him consider taking his own life.
I know Disney+ has no control over its fandom, but as long as they hope to make money with this intellectual property, they are going to have to start taking this into consideration when they promote their films and defend their actors or this will surely continue. Buoyed by the cancellation of this show, such trolls are emboldened to continue their worst behaviors because they believe themselves successful in stopping what they consider an affront.
What Disney can do remains to be seen, but in my opinion, making their series more affordably-crafted, hiring better writers and more dynamic directors, with an eye toward planning and making their work more inclusive and intelligent, would be a great first step. An affordable series would have the room to maneuver and not be chopped before the writers can bring a tale to a satisfying conclusion.
It might not shut up those toxic fans, but it gives the franchise room to tell stories and not make their economic decision entirely on viewers/season. There have been too many famous series whose first season was pure shit that turn around and become beloved creations as the creators, writers and actors find their footing. The Acolyte could have been one of those, just like the Mandalorian and Andor have been. I remember at time when fans rallying at the gate saved shows, I guess it was only a matter of time until fans embraced the dark side and helped to end them. There needs to be more balance to the Force or the Star Wars franchise is done.
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Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
