The End of a New Beginning
A Rant about "The Acolyte"
Since Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars, the franchise has been plagued with quality issues and negative fan responses to new properties. From the disjointed storytelling of the prequels to the over-production of cheap toys that fill landfills, there are a lot of valid complaints that can be lobbed at the mouse. However, these complaints are often overshadowed by the incessant racist, misogynistic, and homophobic whining of the legacy fans of the franchise. While not perfect, Disney set out to make their Star Wars movies more inclusive than the originals. This began with “The Force Awakens”, a film that was met with intense backlash, not for J.J. Abrams horrible mystery box mcguffins but for the inclusion of a white woman and a black man as the main characters.
The actors were subjected to months of harassment and instead of standing by their decisions, Disney capitulated to the bigots. This resulted in the eventual sidelining of Finn completely and a tying of Rey’s character to the more important men that she just so happened to be secretly related to. They were also silent in the face of the organized bullying campaign against Kelly Marie Tran and eventually cut her parts in “The Rise of Skywalker” completely while doing nothing to protect her from an increasingly dangerous online situation. In the years since, all of the actors of color, save for Oscar Isaac, have seen diminished careers likely due to the fact that they are still targets for harassment and studios would rather steer clear than take on any “baggage”. This could’ve been avoided by a simple statement from Disney leadership.
Since then, Disney has continued to release Star Wars projects to middling success and have continued to face the same issue. A new show is announced, the legacy fans see a person of color, or a woman or (gasp) someone who is both, scream, cry, and throw their shit at the walls, and then Disney diminishes their importance in some way or another so that the next iteration is more “palatable”. This behavior kept many minority fans away from the franchise and it looked like it would stay that way until “The Acolyte”.
“The Acolyte” is by no means a perfect show. They are still plagued with the easter egg requirement that usually weighs down these shows as well as some ham-fisted dialogue but for what it was worth, “The Acolyte” was different. It was a fresh story that delved in to the dark side and the Sith and their lore. Which, after decades of being burdened by the annoying contradictions of the Jedi, was a welcome change of pace. The show also gave opportunity to actors many women specifically love but because of the bigotry that still plagues Hollywood, don’t get to see as often as they would like. For me personally, Manny Jacinto and Jodi Turner Smith come to mind. The show also had a solid season finale that sets up season 2 well which is really all you can hope for these Disney plus shows. So you can imagine my shock when it was announced that “The Acolyte” would not be renewed for a season 2. That only 8 days after parading Manny Jacinto around at D23 as a draw for their stale convention, they would cancel it on his birthday! Their only explanation being hints toward the show being “divisive” and having “low ratings”.
This is laughable for many reasons. First, these shows are always going to be divisive to a fanbase that only wants to see white men on screen. Unless Disney can commit to that, then they will never make them happy. Second, the viewership for these shows are never impressive. The losers they try desperately to impress do not consistently watch them. They are mad at the perceived muddying of their beloved property, so much so that they will never give any of these shows a fair chance. Disney should know this by now but instead they immediately fold whenever they hear anything but blind glowing praise. Even if those complaints are about the skintones and genders of their casts. Even if bending to pressure like this means that they chase off loyal potential fans with open minds. Instead, they are willing to turn Star Wars, one of the most famous franchises of all time, into an A.I. slopfest with nothing but easter eggs and saber blasts for their new spiteful masters to complain about before it even comes out. I wonder if this strategy even makes them money anymore or if bending to bigots is just the company-wide impulse at this point.
Anyway I am done with Star Wars for good (thank God) and I am probably not starting any other shows anytime soon either. If studios are canceling shows that aren’t instant successes after 1 season, I won’t watch and we can drift further into this negative feedback loop together. I’m from a time in which a show didn’t hit it’s stride until the end of season 2 and was given the space to grow into themselves. Where writers’ rooms had 22-24 episodes a season to play around with. Many of the show-runners of today cut their teeth in those rooms, with their first writing credits being the first episode after a mid season finale in like season 5 (remember mid-season finales?? remember 5 season plus shows??). Now, we aren’t even preparing the next generation of show-runners and I sincerely believe it’s because the studio heads are gearing up to put openAI to work. I shudder at the thought but I feel as though that’s the path we’re being forced down. Not me though I’ll read exclusively manga and nothing else before I watch a show written by HAL 9000.