Media giant The Walt Disney Company DIS has cancelled a Star Wars original series in a potential puzzling move for a franchise that has spawned countless hits over the decades.
What Happened: Since acquiring Star Wars parent Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney has utilized the franchise to launch new movies in theaters and also launch new original shows to help boost the presence of its Disney+ streaming platform.
One of the newest Star Wars series "The Acolyte" has been cancelled after its first season with no plans to bring the show back for a second season.
Lucasfilm has decided not to launch a second season, according to a report from Deadline.
The eight-episode first season from director and creator Leslye Headland, premiered on Disney+ in June with the final episode airing July 16. Headland was the first female to create a Star Wars series.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a 78% rating from critics and an 18% score from the audience. On IMDb, the series has an overall 4.1 rating with 46% of the more than 116,000 votes scoring the series a 1 out of 10. The highest rated episode on IMDb is 6.5 out of 10, with the other seven all ranked 5.3 or lower.
"The Acolyte" had strong initial viewership with Deadline reporting that the first two episodes launched June 4 had 4.8 million views in their first day and 11.1 million views globally after five days. The series ranked as the top Disney+ series premiere of all time.
The series also ranked on Nielsen's top 10 for the first two weeks at number seven and number six respectively, before falling out of the top 10 in week 3 before a brief return at 10th for the finale. The 335 million minutes tracked for the finale by Nielsen could be the lowest for a Star Wars series finale, according to the report.
Why It's Important: Headland said in recent interviews that she pitched ideas for a second season, which could mean the decision to cancel the series was more based on bad reviews than content.
One concern about the show was that some of the plotlines and characters led to criticism of Disney for making Star Wars “woke.”
Billionaire Elon Musk was among those who spoke out after the show premiered.
"Kathleen Kennedy is super bigoted against men," Musk said on June 22 of the Lucasfilm President.
Musk said that Kennedy is "more deadly than the Death Star" in another tweet.
While "The Acolyte" has come to an end, there is plenty more Star Wars content coming to Disney+ and theaters in the future.
"The Mandalorian" has a fourth season coming and is getting a movie called "The Mandalorian & Grogu." A second season of "Ahsoka" is also in the works along with a second season of "Andor" coming in 2025.
New Star Wars series "Skeleton Crew" hits Disney+ on Dec. 3 with an eight episode first season.
Disney, however, has not released a new Star Wars movie on the big screen since the 2019 film "Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker." It grossed $515.2 million domestically and $1.07 billion worldwide, ranking fourth in franchise history domestically and third among the sequel films.
In fact, after releasing Star Wars films every two years on average, Disney has not released a theatrical film in over four years.
The next Star Wars film on the calendar is “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” set for a May 22, 2026, release date.
Several untitled movies, including one featuring Daisy Ridley as Rey, are poised to expand the Star Wars universe with more content in the future.
DIS Price Action: Disney shares trade at $90.11 versus a 52-week trading range of $78.73 to $123.74. Disney stock is down 1% year-to-date in 2024.
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