The most controversial Star Wars series? Showrunner explains why it was canceled

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ has been one of the most controversial titles of the countless television and cinematic versions of George Lucas’s work.

Cancelled after its first season, more than a year has passed since ‘The Acolyte’ was released and Leslye Headland, the showrunner, spoke about it in an interview with The Wrap.

Headland spoke about her passion for ‘Star Wars’ and about the vast conversation that exists around the iconic franchise, much of which can be incredibly critical. Asked about the reaction, Headland confessed: “I was not surprised by [the cancellation]. I think I was surprised at the swiftness of it and the publicness of it.”

“I was surprised by how it was handled. But once I was getting particular phone calls about the reaction and the criticism and the viewership, I felt like ‘OK, the writing’s on the wall for sure.’”

It wasn’t the first ‘Star Wars’ series to fail, but it was perhaps the most high-profile and costly failure. The ‘The Acolyte’ had a budget of $230 million, something that Headland believes may soon be a thing of the past in the world of television.

“I think that the streaming bubble is now bursting, and I think that started around COVID. It just started to feel like the amount of money that was going to have to be spent on eight to 10 episodes of television, that business model dwindled.”

Headland admitted that the content of the show made it particularly difficult to succeed, away from many of the characters and tropes that fans have grown to love across decades.

“Really the whole thing with ‘The Acolyte’ was always a major risk. It was a new part of the timeline. It was all new characters. It was a part of the lore where you couldn’t use a Storm Trooper, you didn’t have the reference of the politics and war that Tony Gilroy has brilliantly exploited in such a genius way in ‘Andor’.”

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