NYT: Will the Force be with The Acolyte

NYT: Will the Force be with The Acolyte

In two days, a Star Wars spin-off TV show, The Acolyte, will premier on Disney+.  The eight episode season will cost $180 million.  It’s hard to believe anyone thinks this show will be successful.

This is how Leslye Headland, the show creator, pitched her idea for the show to Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucas Films.

Headland described her concept in the meeting as “‘Frozen’ meets ‘Kill Bill.’” Kennedy bought it on the spot.

That’s why the Star Wars IP is trashed.  Kennedy couldn’t resist a sister drama crossed with a woman’s revenge fantasy. 

Stenberg, the show’s star, said “Leslye really is driven by emotion and heart and relationships. So even though our show is within the ‘Star Wars’ universe and set in outer space, in a galaxy far, far away, it’s really a family drama.”

Star Wars fans don’t want that, and everyone else knows that Star Wars is a deteriorating IP, so aren’t going to get on board now.

There was a way that the Star Wars universe could have thrived if the people in charge were competent and didn’t despise the original fan base.  Instead, they tried a bait-and-switch.

Make the three pre-quels and sequels for the original fans.  Tell those masculine stories by staying true to the original trilogy.  Knock out a few TV shows in the same manner, like Mandalorian .

With a well-developed universe, be honest about a TV series that is going to be less action-oriented.  Say you are making a family drama, love story or children’s adventure in that universe.  The original movie, Star Wars: A New Hope was described as a Western in space.  There are plenty of family-oriented Westerns like The Big Valley or Bonanza.  Make sure that original fans know that you don’t hate them and aren’t going to destroy legacy characters.  Emphasize quality, not diversity.