A yr after its cancellation, the showrunner of the divisive Star Wars TV collection The Acolyte displays on all of it, validating some complaints about her creation. The primary Disney+ Star Wars present to be canceled, The Acolyte follows a former Jedi Padawan (Amandla Stenberg) who’s drawn nearer to the darkish aspect of the Drive when her long-lost twin sister (additionally Stenberg) resurfaces.
The Acolyte options The Good Place‘s Manny Jacinto memorably taking part in an aspiring Sith lord, in addition to Squid Sport‘s Lee Jung-jae as Osha’s former grasp, a deeply conflicted Jedi. The solid additionally contains Charlie Barnett, Dafne Eager, Jodie Turner-Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, Dean-Charles Chapman, and showrunner Leslye Headland’s spouse, Rebecca Henderson.
The Acolyte confronted widespread backlash on the time of its launch in June 2024, partly due to authentic issues with the writing. However there was additionally a whole lot of racist rhetoric surrounding the collection, which has a extra various solid than different Star Wars properties. In a brand new interview with The Wrap, Headland acknowledges the true issues and the way “the entire thing […] was all the time a significant threat.“
Headland argues that The Acolyte was bold as a result of it was not rooted in a spot within the Star Wars timeline followers had been already acquainted with. “It was part of the lore the place you couldn’t use a Storm Trooper, you didn’t have the reference of the politics and warfare that Tony Gilroy has brilliantly exploited in such a genius means in Andor,” says Headland. “[…] all that iconography and all these visible references are authentic trilogy references […].“
“I additionally assume that any gripes creatively with the present are fully legitimate,” she continues. “It is the outdated adage of the primary one via the wall is the bloodiest. […] So I’ve no regrets, and Im completely obsessive about Star Wars. I nonetheless am, and I really like my present, and I do know that it was fantastic. And truthfully, the designers that labored on the present are extra answerable for it […].“
Headland admits that she was shocked by the “swiftness” and “publicness” of the cancellation, however possibly not a lot the cancellation itself. “However as soon as I used to be getting explicit cellphone calls in regards to the response and the criticism and the viewership, I felt like ‘OK, the writing’s on the wall for certain’,” she says. She additionally believes her present was challenged by being in comparison with different Star Wars reveals.
Headland says that “there have been solely a pair signal posts that we knew we needed to hit” in relation to story concepts for the second season. Like some reviewers have additionally argued, nonetheless, the showrunner does assume The Acolyte might have used extra time to develop, saying the next:
I really feel like for a launch of a primary season present that was attempting various things, I feel it might have been price it to permit the viewers it was meant for to search out it. However that wasn’t as much as me. So I totally respect the choice, even when I’m unhappy about it.
The Wrap additionally addressed the poisonous aspect of the response to The Acolyte when talking with Headland, who revealed that she was beforehand acquainted with the fandom’s discourse: “I’m a Star Wars fan, which suggests I’ve all the time been, because the launch of YouTube, a part of the Star Wars recap/criticism/lionization fandom neighborhood.“
“These guys I’ve recognized for years and years,” continues Headland. “I supported them on Patreon. There are a few of them that I respect, and there are a few of them that I feel are completely snake oil salesmen, simply opportunists. Then, after all, there are the fascists and racists. So it runs a gamut. It is not only one factor or the opposite.“
“So in some methods I wasn’t shocked, after which in different methods I used to be disillusioned.” Headland additionally acknowledges that these driving the net discourse are doubtlessly making some huge cash off it, particularly due to the “large stage of visibility” of Star Wars. She touches on how these sorts of discussions might management what content material is definitely produced sooner or later.
“However it revealed to me that there’s a misunderstanding between the studios and that engagement. They consider it as fandom, and in methods it’s, however studios use it virtually like a spotlight group,” says Headland. “It made me begin to assume, fairly than these followers are poisonous, or this factor is being imply to me, it made me assume extra that the content material being made about Star Wars will in the end be extra culturally impactful than precise Star Wars.“
The discharge and reception of The Acolyte illustrate quite a bit about how trendy popular culture capabilities, a lot of it for the more serious. Headland’s present nonetheless presents fascinating concepts in regards to the world of Star Wars, making it unlucky it did not come out at a time when it might need been in a position to evolve with a second season.
- Launch Date
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2024 – 2024-00-00
- Showrunner
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Leslye Headland
- Administrators
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Leslye Headland, Alex Garcia Lopez
- Writers
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Leslye Headland, Charmaine De Grate, Kor Adana