Star Wars Has A Problem Canceling Its Projects

There’s a rumble in the Force of Star Wars, with the cancelation of Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte painting a confusing picture of where the galaxy far, far away is heading. While the much-hyped series dove into the relatively unexplored High Republic era of the franchise, The Acolyte couldn’t save itself from scathing fan reviews and allegations that no one was tuning in. However, the latest Star Wars figures suggest a different picture.

The Acolyte’s cancelation might not have come as a shock to those who slated it online. However, some jaw-dropping cameos teased a much bigger season 2 that could have explored some of Star Wars’ most intriguing mysteries. It was clear those working on the show had no idea it was going to be axed. Still, The Acolyte represents a bizarre corner of Star Wars because it was officially canceled. Unlike the slew of other movies and TV shows left in limbo, Disney made the rare move of pulling the plug — but was this all a little premature?

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The Uncertain Future of Star Wars Projects

The latest figures from Luminate claim that The Acolyte was Disney+’s second-most-watched original series of 2024, only coming behind Percy Jackson and the Olympians. There are still complaints that franchise fatigue is plaguing major IPs, including Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But with 2.7 billion minutes of The Acolyte being streamed last year, it hardly seems like the flop it was accused of being. It’s not as simple as that, with others pointing out The Acolyte’s total minutes watched over the course of 2024 is a far cry from The Mandalorian season 1, which garnered 5.42 billion minutes watched in the seven weeks it aired.

As noted by StarWarsNews.net, Luminate’s data doesn’t come from Disney itself and pales in comparison to Nielsen’s look at the bigger picture of 2024. Looking at The Acolyte’s numbers across all eight episodes, it averages just 334 million per week, meaning it would have struggled to crack into Nielsen’s Top 10. Elsewhere, some 693 million minutes of The Mandalorian season 1 were also watched last year — not bad for a show that came out in 2019. Breaking down the numbers, The Acolyte cost a whopping $670,000 per minute of screen time, with its budget thankfully falling shy of Secret Invasion’s record-breaking $212 million for its six-episode season.

While the Rosario Dawson-led Ahsoka was quickly renewed for season 2, it’s not a good look for the future of Star Wars and its many projects that have been announced, but now lie in various states of development or development hell. Even though the cancelation of The Acolyte might sting, it at least puts fans out of their misery without stringing them along in the hope that there will be more. It’s important to note that Temuera Morrison spent months discussing the idea of The Book of Boba Fett season 2, and the maligned miniseries still hasn’t been officially canceled.

It’s the same story for Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series went out of its way to make a star out of Vivien Lyra Blair’s young Leia, tease the return of Quinlan Vos, and cue further adventures with Ewan McGregor’s titular Kenobi and Liam Neeson’s much-loved return as Qui-Gon Jinn. McGregor has repeatedly said he’d like to tell more stories of where Obi-Wan Kenobi went next, but at this point, it’s hard to see how the character could fit back into the ever-expanding world of Star Wars without Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2.

It’s not just shows marooned in space, either. The sprawling Star Wars slate includes a supposed Taika Waititi movie that was announced way back in 2020, a trilogy from Simon Kimberg, Logan’s James Mangold taking things back to the era of the first Jedi, and more. Most had given up on the idea of Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron, only for it to get surprise confirmation that it’s back in development as of March 2024. As recently as January 2025, there were reports that Jenkins could cast Wonder Woman’s Chris Pine as its lead. It seems that until a Star Wars story is officially canceled, it would be foolish to consider it ‘dead.’

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Less is More for Star Wars

It looks increasingly likely that Star Wars overlord Kathleen Kennedy will soon have to follow in the footsteps of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Kevin Feige by confirming the Star Wars slate will be scaled back. There’s a clone army of ideas out there in the ether. To hammer home the bigger problem that Star Wars has, the release of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu in 2026 will be the first Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters in 2019. This is also a point of contention, considering its harshest critics are calling it little more than a revamped The Mandalorian season 4.

Following The Mandalorian & Grogu, there’s nothing more than rumors that Waititi’s mysterious movie could snatch Lucasfilm’s currently empty December 2025 slot. This seems unlikely, considering not a single cast member has been announced. Beyond that, no Star Wars movie has a release date locked in. That becomes even more worrying, given that more jaunts are announced all the time. The latest claim is that Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy wants to bring Ryan Gosling to the franchise. While many think Gosling is what Star Wars needs right now, the last thing anyone needs is more adventures being lost between the cracks.

It’s not just actual projects left in limbo. Way back when, Alden Ehrenreich was supposedly contracted to play a younger Han Solo in three movies. Seven years after Solo: A Star Wars Story, there’s no sign of him returning to the role. Similarly, Donald Glover was supposed to reprise his role as a young Lando Calrissian in some mystery outing that ‘might’ also bring back Billy Dee Williams as an older Lando. This melting pot of ideas is in danger of overflowing, with calls for Disney to tighten the reins and lock Star Wars into a similar mandate as the MCU of having no more than three movies and two shows a year. This would hopefully at least push some of them toward a solid release date.

Even though there’s a seemingly clear vision for where the lucrative Mandoverse is heading, there are a multitude of characters and dangling plot threads destined to collide in The Mandalorian & Grogu. Thankfully, not every Star Wars venture is blindly stumbling around in the dark. Tony Gilroy’s Andor, for example, told a concise story over 24 episodes instead of letting things run out of steam. There’s still a lot to look forward to, but alongside the Mandoverse, there are fears a lot of hope is being pinned on a multi-movie arc for Daisy Ridley’s Rey. Then again, Star Wars has proved nothing is set in stone. Fans have learned to reserve judgment until they’re sitting in cinemas or tuning in on Disney+.

The Acolyte

Release Date

2024 – 2023

Showrunner

Leslye Headland

Directors

Leslye Headland, Alex Garcia Lopez

Writers

Leslye Headland, Charmaine De Grate, Kor Adana

Franchise(s)

Star Wars