So the ‘Star Wars’ show that got canceled because of ratings had good ratings?

Remember how The Acolyte‘s ratings weren’t “good” enough to justify a second season? Well…

It was revealed that out of all of the Disney+ shows, The Acolyte was the second most viewed series on the platform. According to Deadline, it had over 2.7 billion minutes viewed. According to the report, the show also saw a decline after the first two episodes in viewership as the show was airing, which ScreenRant surmised was ultimately why the show got canceled.

It is however a bit of a catch-22 that the show was the second most viewed series on the entire platform and we were told that the ratings just weren’t there to justify a second season. The show Percy Jackson and the Olympians came in at 3 billion minutes viewed and secured itself a second season but The Acolyte, which was just 300,000 short, was not worthy.

The report comes from Luminate Data. Which the report did state that ratings dropped for the series and said that the same happened with Skeleton Crew. “Despite a promising start, Star Wars series, Star Wars series The Acolyte was canceled by Disney and Lucasfilm shortly after its first-season finale. While mixed fan reactions were likely a factor, viewership for the show had waned, with significant decreases after the first two episodes and into the finale,” the report states.

It went on to tell Disney to consider fixing their strategy. “And Star Wars: Skeleton Crew hasn’t fared much better. With only one live-action Star Wars series set for 2025 (Andor Season 2), Disney should consider retooling its strategy to address the franchise’s diminishing returns.”

It still raises alarm bells for the abrupt cancelation of the series when the streamers biggest show was only slightly more viewed.

Something is off with the Force

Part of why many of us believed The Acolyte was canceled came from the backlash. The series itself received hate from right wing YouTubers who claim to enjoy Star Wars. (They don’t.) And the show was relentlessly review bombed by the same type of users. Valid criticism of the series was lost to a mass attack from these right wing “fans” who saw a show led by people of color and written by a queer woman as an opportunity to destroy it.

It was disheartening for us all to see Disney cancel the show after attacks like this. It became even more obvious than the quick cancelation wasn’t entirely a ratings issue when this report was release. Still, if the ratings did drop off after the premiere, that is worth talking about. But it being the SECOND most viewed series on the platform is also an important factor.

The issue now isn’t necessarily the justification. It is how quickly after the show they announced it would not get a season two. They barely gave it a chance and so to see that with this report, the series did better than most of their other programs, it is upsetting to know that people were watching The Acolyte. The hate campaign against the show just was too loud for those with power to care.