Acolyte
Acolyte wasn’t a hit for Disney+, but that alone doesn’t speak to its quality or lack thereof. After all, Andor it didn’t even have great reviews. The difference between the two? Acolyte it was filled with bad writing, amateurish cinematography and didn’t have a distinct audience in mind – at least not one that actually watched it Star Wars. Andrew, on the other hand, it has the best writing in every Star Wars project and tackled serious topics in a serious way. While it wasn’t aimed at fans who just watch Star Wars for lightsaber duels-something Acolyte had plenty—he was targeting an older, more mature fan base that he’s always craved Star Wars grow into something more.
When Acolyte was canceled, it almost seemed like an admission from Disney and Lucasfilm that maybe the franchise was headed in the wrong direction. Of course, for her many defenders in the press and on social media, there was only one acceptable answer: Acolyte was canceled due to “toxic fans” on forums and social media and review bombers on Rotten Tomatoes.
I noticed how absurd this line of reasoning – if you can call it that – was at the time. “Acolyte it just cost a lot, a lot, and that investment wasn’t met with huge viewership numbers like The Mandalorian or critical acclaim as Andor” I wrote at the time, making what I believe to be a fairly simple economic observation, though it’s certainly less vivid and wild than blaming the “dudebros.”
Now, Alan Bergman, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, has echoed this in a recent interview with Vulture, saying:
So in terms of Acolyte, we were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed to be given the cost structure of that title, frankly, to go and do a second season. So that’s why we didn’t do that. Skeleton Crew is in the works right now, so we’ll see. We have seen an increase in this. We’ll see how it goes. Like you said, the reviews have been great for Skeleton Crew, so we’ll have to see how it all plays out moving forward.
Performance—aka ratings, aka how many people actually watched the show—wasn’t where it needed to be to shell out another $200+ million for a second season. Plain and simple. Notably, Bergman did not say that “toxic fans yelled at us on Twitter, so we decided not to do another season.” That’s because no amount of internet toxicity determines whether or not a show gets renewed. Likewise, a show that has a passionate fan base can be canceled for the same reasons. Look no further than My lady Jane on Prime Video. It was a fun show and its fans really loved it, but the numbers weren’t there to justify the cost of a second season. It’s a shame, but it doesn’t do anyone any good to pretend it’s the fans’ fault, whether they’re toxic or just not enthusiastic enough. Entertainment is a business and the numbers need to add up. IN of Andor In this case, Disney made a two-season commitment and enjoyed all the critical acclaim that series received. Acolyte it certainly received more critical acclaim than it deserved, but even its defenders in the press weren’t clamoring for it to win awards.
If toxic fans could kill a streak, True Detective: The Night Country it wouldn’t have led to its creator taking the reigns of that franchise and making a multi-year deal in the process. I don’t mean to suggest that True detective fans who hated The place of the night were toxic, too. I hated that show with a burning passion that continues to burn far more than my dislike Acolyte. My point is simply that people on the internet angry about something don’t tip the scales much. We’re still almost certainly getting three more seasons of Amazon Rings of Power, and that’s a terrible show he left lord of the rings fan base in noise and mayhem. But Amazon seems to have dug it, while Disney is apparently starting to wake up to the fact that its current approach to Star Wars it’s failing miserably.
So what next? I would like to watch more entertainment shows like The skeleton crew. Furthermore, I wish the powers that be at Disney and Lucasfilm would understand this Star Wars has a built-in audience, and that tailoring future shows and movies to that audience – which is mostly boys and men – makes good financial sense. That doesn’t mean we can’t have diversity or great female characters — Princess Leia is one of the most adored characters in media — but it does mean we have to return to some semblance of sanity and business sense when it comes to words to understand the audience and who watches these franchises and buys the merchandise and so on. I actually discussed this in another post about Acolyte cancellation earlier this year also:
This is something I’ve discussed in my “semi-interested girlfriend theory,” which posits that if you appeal to your core demographic, your enthusiastic fan base will bring more casual audiences to the fold. But if you don’t appeal to the demographic base, you won’t just lose your most passionate fans, but all the casual fans you would have brought along. The same would apply if the romance industry started targeting men instead of their main demographic – women! If women stopped going to the tires, they wouldn’t even bring their “semi-interested boyfriends” with them.
Let’s hope that Disney and Lucasfilm – and the rest of Hollywood – can right themselves after these past few years of misguided, arrogant and short-sighted efforts designed to seemingly create a new “modern audience” out of thin air – in place of die-hard fans that made these franchises successful in the first place. Burning cash is not good for balance sheets, especially when said audience has yet to materialize. You can do this and keep creating more different stories along the way at the same time.
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