The power of... disdain and indifference.
Disney has canceled Star Wars: The Acolyte. The show squeaked out a single season on Disney+ with its first episodes airing back on June 4, 2024. From the moment it began to stream, fan reaction to the series was highly negative. It currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a Top Critics score of 78% and an All Audience score of 17%. Believe it or not, the audience score was once even lower and has had to fight to get up to 17%.
In the wake of the negative reaction to the show, various mainstream media outlets and social media users attempted to run cover for The Acolyte, claiming that the low audience score was the result of so-called review bombing. However, there's no actual evidence of such a thing happening. Given the show's particularly low viewership ratings, it's more likely that fans simply didn't like The Acolyte.
According to Deadline, Lucasfilm has decided not to move forward with the Leslye Headland-helmed series. With a budget north of $180 million, the threshold for getting a second season of The Acolyte was always going to be high, While the series had a strong debut on Disney+, with Disney alleging to have amassed 4.8 million views of the series after one day, the numbers dropped sharply after that. The Nielsen Company clocked in The Acolyte's season finale as having only 335 million minutes watched, which puts it far below any other previous Disney+ Star Wars finale. Thus, the decision to cancel The Acolyte was made.
It also can't be ignored that the series was massively polarizing among fans. Headland has been criticized for playing fast and loose with Star Wars lore, ignoring and changing details without rhyme or reason. Other strange production quirks, like a roaring fire in the vacuum of space, didn't help, nor did star Amandla Stenberg who put out a "diss" track seemingly smearing Star Wars fans who didn't like the show as bigots and racists. Perhaps more disturbing and damning were the show's strange takes on morality and justice, which don't fall in line with the values set forth by the original Star Wars films.
Source: Deadline