The Acolyte’s Final Lesson: Star Wars Is Still Smothered by Legacy

Manny Jacinto slays (literally) in this dark-side exploration.

Leslye Headland’s gamble with The Acolyte has not paid off, as the show will not return for a season two on Disney+. The show was intensely divisive among Star Wars fans, and is arguably one of the best examples of how Star Wars aficionados both in the audience and in the writer’s rooms view the franchise.

The problem with Star Wars has always been, in my opinion, that it can’t decide what it wants to be: whether to keep to tradition or break it. As was made evident with the directorship switches in the sequel trilogy films, Star Wars continues to try and appease everyone in the audience instead of picking a path forward and sticking with it. 

The Acolyte offered something very different from what we’re used to seeing in Star Wars. There were almost no references to the original movies, or legacy cameos from Luke, Leia, or other headliner characters. It’s set in the High Republic time period, an era many fans consider to be exciting from a storytelling perspective as there isn’t much mainstream media from this section of Star Wars history.

Other noticeable differences were the diverse cast and heavy presence of the female gaze. The original Star Wars films are noticeably dominated by white characters. That doesn’t make it a bad story, but there does seem to be some pushback from the fans whenever showrunners try to take Star Wars in a more inclusive direction.

Rose divided audiences in The Last Jedi. But look at how cute she is in her fantasy space mechanic outfit.

We’ve seen this in action with the sequel films: Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran, is one of the first East Asian main characters to star in the franchise. And what happens with her character? She gets written out of the trilogy as fast as she appears, with less than ten minutes of screentime in the finale film. 

Though the reason for the sidelining of her character isn’t completely clear, it seems plausible that Star Wars directorship was attempting to placate the hardcore fans who dislike anything that breaks canon. It’s also worth noting that Rose’s last significant action in the series before the figurative demise of her character is getting in the way of another protagonist’s attempt to self-sacrifice. She saves the other character, Finn, which also means Finn’s attack on the enemy is unsuccessful. 

Whether Rose’s character was hated because she’s East Asian or because she was perceived as ‘in the way of’ a male character, Kelly Marie Tran is barely shown on screen in the next film. The actress also faced intense harassment online for her Star Wars role, ultimately deleting her social media accounts as a result. 

It’s unfortunate that the fans reacted so poorly to Rose Tico. But what’s more telling is how Star Wars responded. Instead of supporting Kelly Marie Tran, or sticking to the original plan for Rose’s character— whatever that was— she disappears. What does that say about Star Wars leadership? To me, it says that they’re less interested in telling a compelling story than they are in keeping the fans happy. 

Now, a compelling story and happy fans aren’t necessarily at odds. Of course any franchise should try to maintain audience interest. But my point is bowing to the whims of the audience never makes a story better, it just makes the narrative wishy-washy. Try new things. Stick to it. If it doesn’t work, try something else. But Star Wars’ anxiety over losing any fans means no new ideas get even a chance to win fans over.

That’s the root issue with The Acolyte. It’s got one of the most diverse casts in Star Wars, with Lee Jung Jae, Amandla Stenberg, and Manny Jacinto. Now, the show has its problems. The writing is far from perfect, with highly expositional dialogue and a lack of interiority in the main characters. 

But it was new. The main tension in any Star Wars film or story is always the battle between the light and dark sides of the force. When the original films came out, with Luke championing the light side and Vader a harrowing specter of the dark side, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind who the good guys were. 

With The Acolyte, the lines are far more blurry. It’s one of the first times we see why a character might convincingly fall to the dark side: it explores the desire for revenge, and the rawness of emotion in a way few other Star Wars stories do. 

As new Star Wars media is created, we move further and further away from the original battle of light and dark to explore themes that lie in the periphery. I think that’s a good direction for the franchise to take. It’s not so much that there’s any one message I think is worth exploring; rather, I think it’s good for storytellers to have the freedom to examine the obscure corners of the Star Wars universe. 

Cal Kestis: a rare foray into the darker underbelly of the galaxy.

One of the most beloved Star Wars video games is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the sequel game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. In Survivor, we get (spoiler alert) a compelling, gritty storyline centered around friendship and betrayal. The antagonist is a Jedi who ultimately betrayed the Order to protect his family, and it’s a fantastic portrayal of why good characters fall to the dark side. 

What makes the plot of Survivor so good is that our protagonist, Cal Kestis, faces very real temptations of giving in to his impulses for revenge. He grapples with the difficulty of remaining a good person when everything around him is falling apart. And more than that, he struggles to come to terms with the fact that his friend has become a villain.

‘The Acolyte’ is one of the few other Star Wars shows that portray such real emotions. Sure, we got to see Anakin fall to the dark side in the prequels, but those movies (while fun) were still pretty emotionally stunted. We know Anakin is going to turn bad because we’ve seen the originals, so there’s very little tension in watching him succumb. With Survivor and The Acolyte, we can really feel what the protagonists are feeling. Their struggles are our own. And that’s a great, fresh direction to take.

The other reason Survivor and The Acolyte feel so different is that neither rely on cameos and references to carry the plot. Even if you remove the superficial trappings of Star Wars— the aliens and lightsabers— it’s still a good story. Survivor’s fundamental plotline is one of betrayal. They wrote raw, real characters to show that, and even if you change the setting and theme, it’s still a story I want to read, whether it’s Star Wars or not.

Similarly, The Acolyte portrays a young woman, Osha, gradually becoming disillusioned with the Jedi Order. Again, while the dialogue could be better, the fundamental plotline is good. Osha is raised with strong beliefs in what is good and evil, and has an unwavering faith in the Jedi Order. Yet by the end of the show, she’s faced with the heart-wrenching realization that the organization she’s put her faith in all this time actually betrayed her from the start.

Does the name "Osha" mean anything to you? I mean, besides the Occupational Safety and Health Administration?

Take away the Star Wars theme— that’s still a compelling concept. Imagine learning the people who raised and loved you are the same ones who stole you from your family. But the same cannot be said for many other Star Wars stories. Let’s return to the sequel films: messy and directionless, despite the valiant efforts of the cast. Think about the plot and ask yourself, is this a story you’d still enjoy if Luke wasn’t on screen? If it was some faceless villain who returned instead of Palpatine? 

My point is that too often, Star Wars relies heavily on the legacy of the original trilogy to prop up new media. If your Star Wars narrative is only interesting with cameos and starpower, maybe the fault lies with the underlying plot.

Just because The Acolyte didn’t get the viewership Disney+ wanted doesn’t mean it’s a bad show. To be honest, I’m less invested in whether The Acolyte gets a season two and more concerned with what this cancellation means for the future of Star Wars. Are we ever going to get anything new from this franchise? Or is every experiment going to be aborted the second fans start complaining about canon? 

While I love the Stranger’s fight scenes, using his helmet to headbutt lightsabers as a way of disarming Jedi was baffling, to say the least. The Acolyte has its issues. But it’s also one of the most intense and suspenseful portrayals we’ve seen of the dark side in quite a while, and I’d argue we need a lot more of that in Star Wars.

Ultimately, Star Wars is at a crossroads. Are we going to keep telling the same stories over and over again, with progressively more ridiculous reincarnations of the Death Star? Or are we going to take risks and try to create something new? I think preserving canon is important. But I’m also willing to let writers break canon a little in pursuit of fresh storylines. Give it a chance. Because if we don’t, we’ll never be able to match the originality of the first trilogy.

Star Wars is more than just the Skywalkers and Yoda. Let showrunners tell other stories.