This article contains spoilers for “Star Wars: The Acolyte” Season 1
The first season of “Star Wars: The Acolyte” has come to an end, and while we don’t have confirmation yet that Season 2 is on the way, what we do have is a lot of unanswered questions and dangling threads. There’s emotional closure for Osha and Mae (Amandla Stenberg), a brutal end to the story of Sol (Lee Jung-jae), and answers for what really happened on Brendok. But at the same time that the twins wrap up one arc, they step out onto the uncertain path of another, and there are powerful forces lurking in the shadows.
Unlike “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which was announced and planned as a one-off miniseries, “The Acolyte” clearly has the potential for many more episodes. More than any live-action “Star Wars” TV show since “The Mandalorian,” it has virtually limitless places it could go, as there’s no sequel trilogy or Battle of Scarif waiting on the horizon of the timeline. Showrunner Leslye Headland and multiple cast and crew members have discussed their desire to keep the story of “The Acolyte” going, but high budgets and uncertain success stand in the show’s way.
Let’s take a deeper look into why “The Acolyte” hasn’t been renewed for Season 2 yet, how likely another installment is, and what kinds of stories it could cover.
Why isn’t The Acolyte Season 2 happening yet?
Typically, Disney has been hesitant to overcommit on their expensive “Star Wars” TV shows. There have been exceptions, like “Andor” being commissioned for two 12-episode seasons all at once, but “Ahsoka” Season 2 was only announced months after the first season ended on Disney+. The lack of an official “Acolyte” renewal isn’t necessarily cause for concern right now. It’s an expensive decision for Disney to make, but the current silence isn’t a death knell — yet.
Part of the appeal of “The Acolyte” is that it’s relatively disconnected from most other major “Star Wars” projects. Unfortunately, that could also be reason enough for Lucasfilm to abandon it before it gets a chance to properly complete its story. Canceling “The Acolyte” wouldn’t really impact the other big movies and shows that Disney has on the horizon.
As far as viewership numbers and fan response, there’s both good and bad. The series was slammed with a review-bombing campaign early on, led primarily by the “anti-woke” brigade, but critics have been far more positive. “The Acolyte” had 2024’s biggest Disney+ premiere, but those numbers were still lower than most of the other live-action “Star Wars” shows. However, “The Acolyte” also benefited from a big mid-season boost in fan excitement, thanks to a stellar lightsaber battle in Episode 5, “Night,” and the introduction of a dark side romance arc between Osha and Qimir, aka the Stranger (Manny Jacinto). This resulted in a fan campaign taking root, urging Lucasfilm to renew the show.
What has Leslye Headland said about The Acolyte Season 2?
Showrunner Leslye Headland has made it very clear that she would like to continue making “The Acolyte,” and that there are plenty of stories waiting to be told in potential future seasons. She revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she has “four or five major mysteries” still waiting to be explored in Season 2, but she also said that she was hesitant to leave too much unresolved. “It feels like everyone’s really expecting [their shows] to get a second season, and I don’t feel that’s a good idea,” Headland said. “I threw everything into Season 1, because who knows what’s going to happen?”
As far as whether or not the show will actually get that second chance, Headland said that talks are ongoing. “I would say there are conversations,” the showrunner told Nerdist. “And I don’t know when that will happen. I don’t know when that decision will be made.”
While fans wait, Headland said the best thing they can do to help secure a Season 2 is keep talking about the show and how much they enjoyed it online. “It’s a little tricky because of the way that the internet works,” Headland told Collider. “But if you enjoyed the show and you want to see more of the story, any support that you can give the show on social media platforms would be super helpful. Sending love to the cast, too.”
What has Manny Jacinto said about The Acolyte Season 2?
While “The Acolyte” star Amandla Stenberg hasn’t said much about Season 2 at the time of this writing, her co-star Manny Jacinto has. In a recent interview with GQ, the actor, who plays Qimir — the dark warrior known as the Stranger on the show — shared his hopes for more of “The Acolyte” down the line. Specifically, he seemed to tease a more complete exploration of the implied burgeoning romance between his “Acolyte” character and Stenberg’s Osha.
“In the fan art I’ve seen, there’s a good amount that implies … something between Osha and the Stranger,” Jacinto said. “That’s something that people, I think, have been yearning for in this genre, or at least in this IP, and I love that people are honing in on it and encouraging it.”
Episode 6 of “The Acolyte” is particularly focused on the relationship between the two characters, which many fans have compared to the “Reylo” ship from the sequel trilogy. That arc ended with nothing more than a chaste kiss before Ben Solo’s death, but “The Acolyte” is teasing much more. “If people want it,” Jacinto told GQ, “we can explore that in a subsequent season.”
What could be explored in The Acolyte Season 2?
While the logistics of an “Acolyte” Season 2 are up in the air, there’s no doubt as to the narrative potential. Season 1 ends with a bang, resolving the mystery of Brendok, revealing clues to Mae and Osha’s origin, and putting the Jedi definitively on the backfoot. There are teases of fan-favorite characters and a brutal death for Master Sol, who’s killed by Osha as she bleeds his kyber crystal to turn his lightsaber red.
Mae and Osha remain the stars of the show at the end, and they both get set on new paths for the potential Season 2. Mae volunteers to have her memory wiped, knowing that the Stranger can never trust her again but also fearing what the Jedi might do to her. This new Mae is freed in a way from the trauma that’s driven her life up to this point, and she could go practically anywhere from there. Osha, on the other hand, chooses to train with the Stranger, using herself as the currency with which she buys her sister’s freedom.
At the same time, it’s heavily implied that the Stranger and Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) have a shared past. With all the chaos, for which Sol takes the fall, the Jedi face investigation by the Galactic Senate, and Vernestra calls in Yoda in the final scene to help deal with the aftermath.
Darth Plagueis is waiting in the wings
Probably the biggest dangling thread at the end of “The Acolyte” Season 1 is Darth Plagueis, the famed Sith Lord first mentioned in “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” who appears midway through the season finale peering out of a cave on the Stranger’s planet. We only get a brief look at his hand and part of his face, but if you know the old Expanded Universe (aka “Star Wars” Legends) lore, you’ll know that Plagueis is a Muun, as is the man in the shot.
As if there were any doubt, Leslye Headland has officially confirmed that yes, that is indeed Plagueis. “I thought it was important that he be in the cave because, you know, the call’s coming from inside the house,” she told Collider. “He’s already there in a very intrusive way. So, that was the thought around that. But yeah, baby, Plagueis.”
The long-lived Sith Lord has barely been explored in the current canon, but he’s pretty well fleshed-out in Legends. We know for certain — as Palpatine tells Anakin in “Revenge of the Sith” about his former master — that Plagueis was obsessed with the idea of immortality and conducted various dark Force experiments to create life. Some theories say that these experiments actually led to the creation of Anakin. Given Osha’s own mysterious Force vergence origin, there’s a lot of potential material to explore. Is Plagueis the Stranger’s master? Is this all part of his grand plan? We’ll have to hope for a Season 2 to answer those questions.