Disney does not want Star Trek
In canceling 'The Acolyte,' Disney signals what its 'Star Wars' priorities might be: fewer TV shows.
Welcome to an ‘emergency’ edition of The Traverse. Not sure if this will count as this week’s newsletter or not. Stay tuned!
The Gist
Disney canceled the “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte” after one season.
The show had struggled to build buzz, driving fewer viewers than previous “Star Wars” shows.
After essentially turning “Star Wars” into a TV franchise — more like “Star Trek” — Disney could be shifting priorities.
The Disney+ “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte” will not return for a second season, Deadline first reported on Tuesday.
I wrote about the sorry state of “Star Wars” back in June, noting that the show’s first episode had premiered with 11 million global views over its first five days, less than the previous “Star Wars” series “Ahsoka” (14 million views globally) and far less than “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which attracted 11 million viewers in its first three days just in the US.
The writing was on the wall from the beginning, but it got worse from there. It only charted on Nielsen’s weekly US streaming originals rankings three times over its eight episodes (That’s not the overall ranking, which includes originals, licensed titles, and movies). One of those times was the week of the finale, when the show ranked No. 10 among originals and generated 335 million viewing minutes — down from 488 million minutes the week of its debut.
Disney is not in the business of diminishing returns, especially for one of its most prized brands. But “Star Wars,” one of the biggest movie franchises of all time that has generated billions of dollars in box-office sales, is now essentially a TV franchise more akin to “Star Trek.” There’s nothing wrong with “Star Trek,” but that’s not what “Star Wars” is. And that’s not what Disney wants.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has previously expressed that the company was making too much Marvel and “Star Wars” content, favoring quantity over quality in the streaming age, and that it would pull back.
By canceling “The Acolyte,” Disney could be signaling that it’s getting its “Star Wars” priorities in order: fewer TV shows, and a greater focus on movies (again).
Disney has not released a “Star Wars” movie in five years, since “The Rise of Skywalker.” It will be seven years by the time the next scheduled film, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” hits theaters in 2026. In those five years, Disney+ has released eight seasons of live-action “Star Wars” shows, with another, “Skeleton Crew,” coming later this year.
But while there are still new seasons of “Andor” and “Ahsoka” in the works, I sense a “Star Wars” TV slowdown in the franchise’s future, and a renewed emphasis on theatrical films. Maybe Lucasfilm will even make the movies it has already announced for a change.
Beyond the Traverse
🎮 The upcoming Indiana Jones video game “The Great Circle” was confirmed for PS5 in spring 2025 — months after its Xbox release this December.
🔪 A24 and Peacock’s “Friday the 13th” prequel series found a new showrunner
🤖 A “Pacific Rim” prequel series (there’s that term again!) is in the works
It may not have the viewership expectations, but the audience being split is also not what Disney wants. The sequel trilogy, and most of the shows, have been divisive at best, and bad at worst. Do you think a pivot toward more of a theatrical approach could also signal a change for Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy? She gets a lot of blame for any issues the franchise encounters, and I would seem to agree that she bears a lot of the blame for the state of things