The Acolyte’s bloated budget contributed to its axing
The Star Wars spinoff’s costs topped $230.1 million halfway through post-production.
We had mixed feelings about the news in August that Disney+ had cancelled its Star Wars spinoff series The Acolyte after just one season. At the time, it seemed steadily declining ratings were to blame, particularly given the high production costs. More budgetary details have trickled out since then, indicating that the streaming series spent far more than previously reported, topping $230.1 million—roughly $28.7 million per episode—before post-production had even been completed. That’s significantly more than the original $180 million reported budget, or about $22.5 million per episode.
The show received solid-to-lukewarm critical reviews, although a review-bombing campaign hurt the series’ standing on Rotten Tomatoes among user reviews. As we previously noted, from the start, The Acolyte was a bit of a departure from a typical Star Wars series, weaving in elements from wuxia films and detective stories while remaining true to the established Star Wars aesthetic and design. That alone made it an intriguing effort, with fresh characters and new takes on classic Star Wars lore. And the martial arts-inspired fight choreography was clever and fun to watch—especially in the shocking, action-packed fifth episode (“Night”).
But there were some obvious shortcomings as well, most notably the clunky dialogue—although that’s kind of a long-standing attribute of the Star Wars franchise. The pacing lagged at times, and there was a surprisingly high body count among the central characters. All these contributed to the lukewarm critical reviews.