Despite doing perfectly fine on Rotten Tomatoes, and one of our writers finding the show restored his faith in the Star Wars franchise, The Acolyte has been canceled, according to a new report.
As per Deadline, Lucasfilm has opted not to proceed with a second season of the Star Wars spinoff, with the decision coming a month after the series wrapped on Disney Plus. The series starred Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-Jae, Manny Jacinto and Dafne Keen.
The Acolyte started strong, with the first two episodes cultivating more than 4.8m views during its premiere on June 4 — and became the biggest series to debut on Disney Plus this year. That number climbed to 11.1m views after just five days on the platform.
That said, the show divided longtime fans of the franchise, with user reviews suggesting the show simply "should've been better", comparing it to successful Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian and Andor.
Questions left unanswered at the end of Season 1
In the finale of The Acolyte, viewers were left with an endless barrage of unanswered questions. And now, thanks to the news of the cancellation, we are left to forever speculate about the end of the series.
For starters, fans were treated to a cameo from a very familiar Jedi Master — Yoda. Master Yoda is alive and well during the time frame of The Acolyte, which takes place a century before the "The Phantom Menace" film. However, this small cameo of the tiny green Jedi Master has fallen short of deeper meaning now that the series has come to a rather unfortunate end.
Plus, the last episode gave an intriguing glimpse of who is speculated to be Darth Plagueis the Wise, an infamous Sith Lord. While he isn't explicitly identified, his story is told to Anakin Skywalker by Chancellor Palpatine in "Revenge of the Sith", where Darth Plagueis' tale ends when he is killed by his apprentice, who is none other than Palpatine himself. Fans have speculated that this sighting of Plagueis could mean that Qimir (Manny Jacinto) is a young Palpatine — but alas, we will never truly know.
Thankfully, Disney Plus still has several Star Wars shows on the way, including Skeleton Crew, which will debut in December, and Andor Season 2, pegged for early 2025.