The Acolyte

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About

The Acolyte is an American space-opera television series set in the Star Wars universe. The show premiered in June 2024, with the story taking space toward the end of the High Republic era, before the events of the original movies. The show follows a respected Jedi Master investigating a series of crimes that unveil sinister forces at work. Upon announcement and release, The Acolyte received mixed reactions from fans and users online, as well as significant press coverage, memes, fan art and other content on social media.

Origin

Television writer Leslye Headland discussed possibly creating a Star Wars show for Lucasfilm back in 2019, with a writers' room for the show being assembled in 2021 and filming going underwear in late 2022. In interviews leading up to the show's release, Headland discusses how she wanted to explore the franchise from the perspective of the villains. In this regard, the show is set during the High Republic era at the height of the Jedi's power, with the Siths in hiding and Dark Sidious set to ascend to power without the Jedis knowing.^[1]

On March 19th, 2024, the Star Wars YouTube^[2] channel posted a trailer for The Acolyte, gathering over 10 million views in two months (seen below). The show stars Amandla Stenberg as Osha and Mae Aniseya, and Lee Jung-jae as Sol.

Reception

Initial reactions to The Acolyte were generally favorable but mixed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 7.5/10,^[3] and a Metacritic score of 67 out of 100.^[4] Some reviewers commended the show's fresh and new style and storyline, which veers away from galactic warfare and toward martial arts and detective-style plotlines.

The Rolling Stone review was reposted to Reddit's /r/television^[5] on June 4th, 2024, gathering over 1,000 upvotes on a caption that read, "Even a veteran Jedi master would lose patience with the latest Disney+ addition to the canon, which focuses on a pair of twins, revenge, and… zzzzz."

Online Reactions

Initial reactions to The Acolyte were mixed, with some fans sharing memes about the show's characters, with a particular focus on Master Sol and Yord. For example, X^[6] user @ahsokasgoggles posted a meme about Master Sol on June 4th, 2024, gathering over 1,000 likes in three days (seen below, left).

On June 5th, X^[7] user @FlyingGraceSon posted a meme about Yord, jokingly calling him a Sith Yord in a post that gathered over 2,000 likes in two days (seen below, right).

Others online, however, were less enthused about the new Star Wars series, posting reviews and critiques online. For example, YouTubers AngryJoeShow (seen below, left) and Jeremy Jahns (seen below, right) each released reviews in the days surrounding the show's debut, both giving it middling reviews.

Yord Posting

Fans of the show took a particular interest in Yord, a straight-laced Jedi Knight played by Charlie Barnett. A June 4th, 2024, post by X user @rotsoka^[11] gathered over 1,000 likes in three days (seen below, left) while an edit posted by user @keldorjedii^[12] on June 6th gathered over 1,600 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Criticism

Some fans criticized the show for being woke, with a clip of the show's lead Amandla Stenberg talking about a past project on Trevor Noah making the rounds on June 5th, 2024. Stenberg can be heard joking about how her show The Hate You Give, which focuses on police brutality, made white people cry.

X^[8] user @EndWokeness posted the clip, gathering over 35,000 likes and various reposts in two days (seen below).

Earlier in 2024, X^[10] user @RuinTheManbaby posted a parody opening crawl mocking The Acolyte, gathering over 1,000 likes in two months (seen below, left). On June 6th, 2024, X^[9] user @retneysholocron joked about hate for The Acolyte coming from people with Boomer-coded profile pictures, gathering over 4,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Cancellation

On August 19th, 2024, it was announced by Lucasfilms that a season 2 of The Acolyte was cancelled and would no longer be made. This news was met with cheers from many fans of Star Wars, as it was believed that the show had gone too far with it's storytelling being against established cannon. On August 19th, 2024, the X user @WallstreetSilv^[13] responded to the Deadline report of the cancellation by calling out the inconsistency with Star Wars cannon as well as the Force Baby Episode which was highly controversial (shown below).