Week-to-Week: The Acolyte's Inscrutable Cancellation
Deserved or not, the absence of clarity makes the Star Wars series' early end a bellwether
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Last month, there was not a single executive who took to the stage at the bi-annual Television Critics Association Press Tour to address journalists about the state of their respective network, streaming service, or conglomerated entity. There’s some caveats here—FX’s John Landgraf and PBS’ Paula Karger were both unavailable on their scheduled dates but sent apologies— but in general there’s a clear consensus: executives have no interest in facing hard questions about their decision making, particularly not in an environment where seismic change is impacting both legacy and streaming corners of the television industry.
However, I think that we need to acknowledge that the definition of “hard questions” has changed since the early days of the tour. Historically, executives would consider hard questions those which held them accountable for business decisions that angered fans or triggered criticisms along the lines of diversity and inclusion. These are questions where the people asking them probably know the answers, but they want to force executives to say the quiet part out loud, and tap dance around the capitalist realities that govern the industry above all. It’s an uncomfortable position to be in, albeit one that people in positions of power within an industry should be in, given the accountability it creates.
However, when we had executive sessions at Winter Tour in February, I would argue that the questions which might be categorized as “hard” were very different than they were a decade ago. More than ever, I would argue that the journalists who cover television are asking questions because we don’t know the answer. With streaming services bypassing traditional ratings, and as once open wallets close with profitability newly a concern for many streamers (most recently Apple), we don’t know the operating logics of the industry in the way we thought we did. And so when we have executives in front of us, the vibe in the room is an exploratory effort to try to understand how to help our readers interpret a TV landscape where success is a moving target on a seemingly month-to-month basis.
This came to mind yesterday when it was announced that Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte—which Josh Spiegel covered here at Episodic Medium this summer—would be concluding after a single season. It’s a decision that is truly inscrutable, as we have no hard data to work with. While available ratings data suggests the show saw low viewership compared to past Star Wars series, what was Disney’s actual threshold for continuing?1 Was the decision based solely on viewership, or was the creative path of the series—either the execution of season one or Leslye Headland’s plans for season two—also a point of concern? Is this a symbol of Disney’s larger goals for the Star Wars franchise, or rather an isolated failure? Would the decision have been the same if The Acolyte had debuted a year earlier in Ahsoka’s place, when the company’s approach to streaming may have been different?
We really don’t have anything but speculation to fill the gaps in these questions, beyond some unsourced claims at The Hollywood Reporter that controversy surrounding its “wokeness” allegedly “hurt the public perception of the show” (more on that a bit later). For me, though, I wonder how this lack of clarity impacts people who invest their time and energy into platforms like Disney+. Now, to be fair, we’ve seen with Netflix that for the most part viewers weather the storm of cancellations—if you recall, Netflix spent several years giving second seasons to microwaved turds in television form (see: Real Rob), but has successfully transitioned to a more cutthroat business model that presumes viewers will simply shift from a canceled series to a new series designed to serve the same demographics but with a chance of drawing a bigger audience.
But there’s something distinct about Disney, and Star Wars specifically, when we consider this. Disney, compared to Netflix, does have a strong emotional connection with its audiences, and that’s doubly true among Star Wars fans. Heck, at D23 last week Manny Jacinto appeared on a panel reflecting on The Acolyte season one, meaning that presumably either Disney executives were using that to gauge interest in a second season or knew they were canceling it and celebrated it anyway. The past five years has obviously seen a fair share of canceled or delayed Star Wars projects, including some that were very publicly announced (see: Patty Jenkins’ seemingly revived Rogue Squadron), but there is something distinct about giving fans the first season of a TV show, ending it on a cliffhanger, and then deciding not to move forward. What kind of precedent does that set for Skeleton Crew, or does this imply that it’s already being perceived as a one-off? For all the griping online about Disney’s desecration of this franchise, taking a risk on a project unconnected to the Skywalker Saga and then promptly giving up sends some bad messages about the future of the brand within Disney’s leadership.
Now, the same dynamics that make this cancellation challenging for Disney and Lucasfilm also give them options that Netflix or other services don’t have. Chances are that The Acolyte will continue in another form, whether as novels or a comic book series, and that kind of transmedia worldbuilding is an affordance Disney has at their disposal. But was that part of the company’s calculations here? Did they know that they could spin The Acolyte as a launching pad for a new corner of the universe that could be explored in other (cheaper) media, therefore making it easier to risk the bad press of a cancellation? And what will they do with the subsection of more casual fans who watched the show, became invested, and are less likely to invest in a transmedia experience and are just frustrated that the narrative is being cut off before it becomes truly interesting?
I suppose we do need to acknowledge that there’s a fair argument that The Acolyte did not creatively earn a second season. There were some high points (the fight choreography, some of the performances), but the narrative structure was a source of frustration, delaying clarity on key events mainly to draw out the story without gaining much insight on the characters or themes therein. The core idea of the show—the inherent flaws of the Jedi as an order—was interesting and a welcome addition to the larger Star Wars universe, but this isn’t a case of a great show failing to find an audience. It was a moderately compelling series which struggled to maintain momentum, and its lagging viewership could reasonably be read as a cause-and-effect of those issues.
I’m resistant to this argument for a few reasons. First, although it’s an unfortunate trend that shows pace out a pilot over an entire first season, I do think that television remains a long-form medium, and shows with potential deserve a chance to grow provided the component parts are worthy. The Acolyte passed this test for me, so long as some lessons were learned in the storytelling process that could lead to necessary adjustments. Second, meanwhile, is the fact this cancellation has once more emboldened bigoted Star Wars fans who fail to hide their racism and misogyny behind originalist bullshit on the internet. Going to star Amandla Stenberg’s Instagram to see if she had posted about the cancellation and finding people attacking her in the comments of her post celebrating her stunt doubles made clear that this cancellation is a boon for a hateful group of people who shouldn’t be encouraged in this way (even if, as Wired notes, there are obviously good faith criticisms of the show mixed in with the racists, but how good faith can “immediately go to lead actor’s Instagram to taunt her about her show getting canceled” be?)
However, the problem is that in the absence of any kind of clarity, decisions regarding shows like The Acolyte can be read in any number of ways, whether as an indictment of “woke” Disney’s attempts to kill Star Wars or—more compelling for me—as a darker sign for the health of the TV industry.2 When a high profile show like The Acolyte gets canceled, you start to ask questions about whether we’ve gone from “too big to fail” to “too big to succeed” when it comes to big-budget television projects. Instead of focusing on the possible micro issues—like the value of a standalone Star Wars spinoff compared to a show like Ahsoka that intersects with a big hit like The Mandalorian—we’re left to wonder if there’s any reason at all to invest in shows that seem like they’re at all risky for their corporate overlords.
Admittedly, talking about a Star Wars spinoff as a risk is absurd, but the idea of an original series at this scale is beyond the realm of possibility—just look at how quickly Disney moved on from American Born Chinese. And as Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery both double down on franchise extensions as their solution to streaming churn, The Acolyte’s cancellation feels like a reminder that simply mitigating risk through an established property is not going to be enough. In an environment where streaming services are meant to generate revenue (like, you know, television is supposed to), the standards for success are shifting, and The Acolyte is an example of a show that may have met a very different fate a year ago.
Instead, it’s a on-and-done experiment that will remain on Disney+ as a warning to future creators and viewers, at least until Disney decides to write it off and license it to Tubi.
Episodic Observations
The thing is that we did get an executive session from the person ostensibly in charge of Disney+, Craig Erwich, in February. However, his purview is “Disney-Branded Television,” combining ABC, Hulu, and the non-franchise pieces of Disney+. Lucasfilm and Marvel are their own corners of that universe, and the idea of ever seeing any of their leadership at Press Tour is honestly hilarious.
This does add another layer of confusion, though: for instance, Deadline’s reporting on The Acolyte’s cancellation suggests that “Lucasfilm [is] opting not to proceed with a second season,” but we would typically associated renew/cancel decisions with the distributor (Disney) not the producer (Lucasfilm, admittedly part of Disney). That language implies that it was a creative decision within Lucasfilm, but that could literally just be my nemesis Nellie Andreeva choosing words without intending anything by them. We’ll likely never know unless a Disney shareholder bugs Bob Iger about it.
I admittedly have a busy week, so I won’t end up seeing all of the Democratic convention, but I tuned in for night one while I was writing this newsletter, and it’s definitely a distinct rhetorical moment that will be studied for a long time. The need for Night One to effectively pass the torch was so evident, balancing reverence with an acknowledgment that this moment does not belong to either of the past two Democratic nominees. It’s not scintillating television, but I tuned in (to PBS’ coverage because their anchors Zoomed into Press Tour from the RNC and I’m loyal to people who talk to us), which I absolutely would not have imagined a month ago.
I’ve got a semester to start, but after that we’re gearing up for our yearly subscription drive, where we call upon our community to help support the Substack in the year ahead with discounts on 12-month subscriptions. Stay tuned for more information, and I’ll have a full-ish fall schedule attached to it, so if you’ve got shows you want covered now is your last chance to make your voice heard (in the comments at least, paid subscribers can use the chat at any time).
This is some really interesting ratings analysis of the different Star Wars series, and I recommend checking it out but then not reading the comments below it. Just don’t look.
I love how THR leads with “the backlash to wokeness” but then has one quick sentence at the end noting “Another factor may have been the evolving nature of streaming viewing habits and the erosion of goodwill of the Star Wars brand when it comes to its series,” as though those are less likely to be significant. Those are, uh, pretty significant.
I assume this tweet from @noolivesthnx last night was related to The Acolyte being canceled:
TV 20 years ago: "it starts out clunky but if you suffer through the first 45 episodes it starts to almost get good!"
TV now: "If this 8hrs of tv doesn't break all viewing records within the first 20 minutes of its release we're going to shoot the cast"
Also I noticed yesterday was Manny Jacinto's birthday, so that's extra rough.
I know it's two wholly different shows, with different producers, distributors, and audiences, but The Acolyte, designed to be a multi-season show, getting only one season, while Shogun, designed to be a one-season show, getting a renewal, feels like nobody can tell what executives are thinking.