The real reason The Acolyte was cancelled

The Star Wars franchise has seen quite a bit of success in launching new stories via the Disney Plus streaming service. We don't have to look far to support that comment, as The Mandalorian - the very first Disney Plus series ever - has gone on to become one of the franchise's biggest success stories, all while introducing viewers to a new Star Wars character, who has since become a major player in the saga.

Lucasfilm attempted to recreate that strategy again with the more recent The Acolyte. Like The Mandalorian, the show didn't feature any of the well-known characters from the well-known franchise, distancing itself from the iconic Skywalker Saga through its timing and setting, all while focusing on new, original characters in a story that played out more like a murder mystery than anything else.

Unfortunately, the show only lasted for one season as it was cancelled shortly after its first concluded its run, ending a new era for the Star Wars franchise before it even truly began. The reasoning behind that cancellation is questionable from a creative standpoint, but it does make some sense when it comes to its ridiculously large budget.

The Acolyte's viewership decreased significantly throughout its run

Let's give credit where it's due: The Acolyte started with impressive viewing figures, as Disney Plus announced that the premiere episode drew in 11 million viewers in its first five days of release. That made it the biggest premiere of the year for the platform and, even though it was 3 million short of fellow Star Wars series Ahsoka's 14 million viewers launch last summer, it was a strong opening for the series.

Unfortunately, the numbers decreased significantly throughout the show's run, which the studio undoubtedly found particularly troubling given that it only ran for eight episodes. Granted, the numbers weren't released, but a number of companies that tracked ratings, such as Samba TV acknowledged that it seemed to fall out the streaming charts pretty early into that run. Nielsen did reveal that it returned to the Top 10 of its own charts on the week of its season finale, but the numbers were believed to be the lowest for any Star Wars series thus far.

As for why there was such a sharp drop-off, that is down to multiple reasons. A number of "toxic fans" review bombed the series, which may have turned off general audiences intrigued to see the show due to its poor online reviews, but it's also important to acknowledge that those aren't the actual reviews, which were much more positive.

But one thing that reviews did point out is that the first episode wasn't a strong start for the series and that it only really got going around its fourth or fifth episode. If general audiences had already begun to tune out at that point, they likely wouldn't have been watching when it did kick into gear.

Declining viewership is always a root cause of cancellation but considering The Acolyte held its own even with its underperformance, it wasn't the only reason here.

The Acolyte's budget was far too large

Here's the thing: The Acolyte's viewership numbers weren't bad; they just weren't good enough for a Star Wars show. The reason? The show's budget was far too high, which placed extra pressure on it to succeed. And it unfortunately wasn't going to live up to those expectations.

On paper, the Disney Plus series had a budget of $180 million, which is already far too high for a TV series. But it reportedly ballooned beyond that, costing over $230 million to make. Which, again, is far too large for a television show, especially one that was supposed to give newer, unknown characters a platform.

Needless to say that this placed far too much pressure on The Acolyte, because it was likely never going to reach numbers big enough to justify that. And unfortunately, there is a lesson to be learned here. Let's take Marvel Studios' Agatha All Along for example. That show drew 9.3 million viewers in its first week of release; lower than The Acolyte, sure, but the series cost less than $40 million to make. Its viewership also reportedly went up in its second week, increasing by 321%. So that was a risk that paid off.

It's unclear what the future currently holds for the Star Wars shows on Disney Plus, but if that galaxy so far, far away does plan on producing more original shows for the streamer, it will likely be at a much lower cost. How do they do that in a world as outlandish as Star Wars?

That's a mystery, indeed, but let's just hope it's one that Lucasfilm and Disney can work out, so that what happened to The Acolyte never has to happen again.