‘Renew The Acolyte’ Petition Passes 40,000 Signatures: Will It Help?

It’s easy for fans to feel helpless when things don’t go their way in the media landscape. When The Acolyte was canceled, fans had few options but to vent on social media, and one alternative was the tried-and-true Change.org petition.

The “Renew The Acolyte” petition has now garnered 40,000 signatures in less than a week. That’s a good number, but the question now is whether it counts or not, whether it reaches 50,000 signatures or some other arbitrary number.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of petitions like this in my lifetime and they rarely work. The goal is often to get the company to comment on the petition at some point and I don’t see Disney doing that, at least not in this form. They’ve said virtually nothing about the show’s cancellation, no explanation, no thanks to the cast and crew, none of that.

But as I said before, I don’t think that’s the case. entirely There’s no way Disney is going to change course. Their silence might actually be evidence of that consideration. The petition might be a factor, but I’d recommend fans watch the show. Well, rewatch it. A lot. I’ve seen mountains moved by “interest” campaigns, the most significant of which was the fans who pushed the canceled series Manifest to the top of Netflix’s Top 10 for weeks until it was finally renewed and brought to a conclusion. However, The Acolyte would need a critical mass of fans to make that work, and I’m not sure they can pull that off. They can try, though.

Several entertainment media outlets have devoted space to defending The Acolyte and criticizing Disney’s decision to cancel it:

• Rolling Stone: “But what the extreme fans don’t seem to understand is that they’re creating a space that even the most dedicated Star Wars fans wouldn’t want to be a part of. Let’s be real. If you thought you could be a part of the next big Star Wars movie, but you knew your project might be criticized simply because you cast a person of color, is that where you would invest your time? Or if you were an actor of color choosing between two roles you believed in, would you choose the one that would almost certainly be accompanied by a hate campaign?”
• Conversely: “If Lucasfilm truly wants to save Star Wars from fading into oblivion, it must stop treating the entire franchise with the same timidity and softness that brought it to the brink. The studio, however, has yet to show any signs that it is truly capable of making that change.”
• Screenrant: “Star Wars can’t continue like this. We’re now in a situation where even getting involved with Star Wars means risking the wrath of the worst elements of the fandom. This is especially true for women.”

So, this is great (and yes, I’ve written a few of these myself), and I think there’s some pressure on Disney for this one. Certainly more than, say, not bringing back The Book of Boba Fett or even a progressive show like She-Hulk . But you can never discount corporate spreadsheets. This came at a huge cost. It didn’t get a lot of viewers. But you could certainly argue that the cost could come down, and you could frame this as an investment in the future of a more creative, Skywalker-less Star Wars . Plus, it sends a message to a legion of toxic Star Wars fans who hate 95% of what Disney does at any given time, and to non-toxic fans that their opinions matter.

Will they succeed? They might. But it is a very difficult task.

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