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The Acolyte no more, as Disney+ cancels the latest live-action Star Wars show
Reports are emerging that Leslye Headland's Star Wars series will not get a second season
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The story of Mae and Osha has ended… onscreen, at least, with Deadline reporting that Disney+ has opted to end Lucasfilm’s Star Wars series The Acolyte after one season.
The series, announced back in 2020 and streaming on Disney+ from June through mid-July 2024, was the creation of writer/director Leslye Headland, who purposefully pitched it as a Star Wars project that could appeal to newcomers to the franchise as well as longtime fans, with a writers’ room that included a mix of creators with familiarity with Star Wars canon (including one who had never seen any of the franchise before taking the job). It debuted as the biggest series premiere on Disney+ in 2024, but its viewership was lower than the debut of Ahsoka in 2023. According to Deadline, its season (and now series) finale was the least viewed of any Star Wars series on Disney+.
Headland had spoken before the series’ debut, saying that she “definitely pitched it as a multi-season show,” and that’s something that stands up as a viewer; the story very deliberately does not end in the final episode, which instead suggests that there’s far more to be said about the Stranger, Mae, and Osha — not to mention the rise of the Sith during the time of the High Republic.
It’s not impossible that Lucasfilm will eventually return to this storyline at some point — consider how long it took for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka to get made, after all — but fans should also not ignore the possibility that the storyline may continue in comic books or prose novels. After all, The Acolyte is set during the High Republic era of the franchise, one that, until this series, had only existed in published material.
Disney has yet to confirm Deadline’s reporting.
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