The first season of The Acolyte is drawing to a close this week – but will there be a second season of the hit new Star Wars spin off?
The show is set 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and episodes were released to streaming on Disney+ on June 4.
The Acolyte has been created by Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland and it stars Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give, Bodies Bodies Bodies) in the twin lead roles of Osha and Mae. The two characters are raised by a coven of witches, led by Jodie Turner-Smith,and are separated by tragedy, with Osha training as a Jedi before lapsing, while Mae turns to the dark side.
The show has received much critical acclaim, including NME in a a four-star review of the show. We said of the show: “As with everything in Star Wars, balance is everything – but it feels like Headland has managed to walk a finer line than most with The Acolyte. It’s new, without feeling unconnected. Pristine, but not too shiny. Fun, but still substantial. It feels like a place to grow from, as well as a worthy stand-alone story in its own right.”
The instalments of the show have been released weekly on Disney+ with the final one due to air today (July 16).
Will there be a second season of The Acolyte?
As yet, there has been no official confirmation that the show will return. However, in an interview with Nerdist, Headland said there would be a satisfying conclusion to the first season but kept news about season two to a minimum.
“We definitely aren’t going to leave you hanging…You do a show like this, you take a lot of risks, you don’t really save a lot of those types of questions for season two,” Headland explained.
When asked directly about if they knew a follow up was definitely on the cards,, Headland replied “no” followed by: “I have no idea. Well, not that I have no idea. I would say there are conversations. And I don’t know when that will happen. I don’t know when that decision will be made.”
However, speaking to ComicBook, Headland admitted there was more stories to be found in characters from the show.
When asked by Jedi News if Jecki and Yord had more to their backstories, and if we might see them in another incarnation, Headland replied: “Yeah, definitely. Pablo Hidalgo and I have talked about that, and since wrapping up the season, there’s definitely some stuff that I would love to see come to fruition.”
“Obviously, Vernestra already exists in publishing, so also going to do something there. There was a lot of background done on them both by the actors in the writers’ room. Yord Fandar, I’ve said this before, was a character in a campaign that I played, so there’s a pretty large backstory to him. But yeah, it was always the plan to kill them in Episode 5 halfway through the season. So it was kind of fun to think about them a lot and then think, ‘Well, because we didn’t spend a lot of time with them, maybe there’s a way we could keep playing around with them somehow.'”
Has there been any official statement about it yet?
No. As yet, there is no official confirmation from Disney+ or Star Wars of a return – but with the ending of the season today (July 16), news could come sooner than we think. Based on other Star Wars spin-off series having follow-ups green-lit, The Acolyte could well ne next.