Last Wednesday, the first two episodes of the new Star Wars series premiered on Disney+. Reviewers loved Acolyte and up to 91% of reviews were positive. The series was poorly received by viewers and some Star Wars fans, who gave the production the lowest ratings. This has led to Acolyte currently being the worst rated Star Wars series.
Star Wars: Assistant The disgraced record holder for all Star Wars franchises
On Rotten Tomatoes, the production has only 26% positive reviews. On Metacritic, the average audience rating is 3.1/10 out of 546 user-submitted reviews. Acolyte has a slightly higher but equally low average rating on IMDb, just 4.5/10 out of 17,000 reviews. Up to 44.2% is a rating of 1/10, given by over 7,000 people.
According to CBR, many viewer reviews on the aforementioned sites appear to be AI-generated, and contain only a basic summary of the plot, without any unique opinions or ratings of individual items. Meanwhile, on Rotten Tomatoes, many of the people who gave Acolyte only half stars are new accounts with no other reviews.
It’s worth wondering why Star Wars: Acolyte was so hated by so many people, even if they hadn’t seen the show yet. The show’s lead character, Leslye Headland, an LGBTQ+ person, has sparked a lot of controversy. In addition, the author of Acolyte admitted in an interview that she deliberately hired a screenwriter with no previous knowledge of Star Wars so that she could look at the whole story from a different perspective. However, this did not sit well with some Star Wars fans. Headland has also been criticized for her ties to convicted harasser Harvey Weinstein, whose personal assistant she was for four years. Some accuse Headland of knowing well her boss’s actions and trying to cover him up so as not to face his wrath and lose her job.
Recently, the lead star of the show also created a lot of buzz with his statement. In an interview that appeared before the series’ premiere, Amandla Stenberg said that she considers all nerds, including Star Wars fans, to be homosexual. She then added that she thinks the entire series has become “Very gay”.
Charlie Barnett, in turn, said this in his own interview “Anakin destroyed the Death Star.” It led to the loss of many lives. It’s hard to say whether it was just a slip of the tongue related to stress or exhaustion from doing one interview in a row, or whether the actor actually doesn’t know Star Wars, but it was another element that encouraged some Star Wars fans. series to give Acolyte the lowest rating.
Despite this, the series cannot complain of declining interest. Disney boasted that Star Wars: Acolyte attracted a very large audience for its premiere. Already on the first day, the production had 4.8 million views, the best result of any Disney+ premiere this year.
Star Wars: The Acolytes takes place at the end of the High Republic era, roughly 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The series follows a respected Jedi Master who investigates a series of crimes that bring him into conflict with a former Padawan and uncovers sinister forces.
The cast included: Amandla Stenberg, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jung Jae Lee, Manny Jacinto, Daphne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodi Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, Margarita Levieva, Amy Tsang, David Harwood, Oryz, and Abigail Thorne.
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