Politics
Disney CANCELS Woke Star Wars Show After Conservative Boycott
The cultural liberation of the “Star Wars” universe by progressive activists has been put on hold as franchise owner Disney considers the blowback from conservative subscribers upset over its latest LGBTQ-friendly sci-fi endeavor.
“The Acolyte,” which recently premiered on Disney+ to mixed reviews, will not return for a second season, Deadline reported. The brainchild of far-left director Leslye Headland starred Amandla Stenberg and garnered a 78% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes but starkly divided fans over its “inclusive” messaging, leaving many to ask whether the revisionism in their childhood universe was appropriate or even necessary. Upon launching June 4th, “The Acolyte” brought in a strong 4.8 million viewers on its first day and over 11 million after five days, making it the best rollout for Disney+ in 2024.
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However, enthusiasm for the show quickly dropped off. By its third week, “The Acolyte” had dropped out of the top 10 most-viewed shows on the company’s streaming service. Before its cancellation, Headland admitted in interviews that she had pitched company executives on her ideas for continuing the mystery-thriller about the last days of the High Empire and a former Padawan who reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes. Critics dubbed the $180 million venture “The Woke-olyte” after Stenberg, the lead actress, described the series as “gay” according to National Review. “It’s canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian” Headland stated in an interview, asking rhetorically, “Are you telling me with a straight face that C-3PO is straight?” Other progressive cultural critics have praised the series for “centering on a coven of lesbian space witches” and “giving space to queer people in the Star Wars universe.”
WATCH:
We are happy to report that #TheAcolyte is “arguably the gayest #StarWars” yet. 🌈 Happy Pride Month! 😉 pic.twitter.com/3oJSykc4Kq
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 4, 2024
Headland herself said her own sexual identity would inevitably come through in her direction of “The Acolyte.” “There’s just no way that me being a queer woman is not going to be reflected in my work,” she told The Advocate. Arnold Write with The Review previously chided the series for replacing cultural ESG pillars with Star Wars-themed appropriations. “Show-runner Leslye Headland contrived The Acolyte using Star Wars ideas, figures, and lingo to replicate progressive pillars for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, the corporate bottom line said to prioritize ‘profit, people, planet’ — this time in the interplanetary sense,” he wrote during the show’s premiere.
Some interactions in the show bordered on absurd, including one where Stenberg’s character blasts herself for possibly using the wrong pronoun to describe an alien creature. However, she appeared unbothered by criticism of the show’s LGBTQ virtue signaling, telling GQ “there is a specific kind of Star Wars fan that’s very vocal on the internet” and “they’ve called our show The Woke-alyte a fair amount — which I’m like, ‘OK, what about it?’”
Over the past several years, Disney has been hit by a wave of criticism – ridden by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – accusing the children’s dream-maker of inserting progressive values into its programming. Before launching his sputtering presidential campaign, the Republican governor attempted to withdraw Disney’s tax-exempt status but ultimately got mixed returns in court. Still, other movies dubbed “woke” like “The Marvels” suffered massive losses at the box office. Earlier this year “The Elementals,” an animated film about the lives of cartoon chemical elements that featured a non-binary character, also fared poorly. The blowback has led to some of the lowest stock valuations for Disney in years and massive drop-offs in its Disney+ subscription service.
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