Why some Star Wars fans reject The Acolyte

The new series to watch on Disney Plus is notably accused of “wokism”…

This week, the first two episodes of The Acolyte have arrived on Disney Plus. This is the first screen adaptation of The High Republic, a mythical age in the universe Star Wars which plunges us two hundred before The Phantom Menace. An event, therefore, for fans of the saga created by George Lucas. Except that the result is not to everyone's taste.

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The Acolyte won over the critics. With 92% positive reviews listed on Rotten Tomatoes, it should be a hit. Except that part of the fanbase of Star Wars don't hear it that way. The series' public score drops to 27%. Enough to arouse suspicion of review bombingthe practice of drowning out bad reviews of a film or series, generally to protest against its bias.

Screenrant argues that many opinions, taking up simple elements of the synopsis, seem to have been generated by artificial intelligence. A large number of half-star ratings were also posted by accounts created for the occasion. Another sign that this is an orchestrated campaign to take down the show. The same phenomenon would have taken place on Metacritic.

However, the rejection of The Acolyte by a fringe of fans of Star Wars appears very real. On Allociné, it's the big gap with a large majority of excellent (4 or 5 stars) or catastrophic (0 stars) ratings from spectators. And examination of the accounts does not allow us to affirm that this is a review bombing.

But what can people blame The Acolyte ? You just have to go to social networks, in particular X formerly Twitter, to understand this. With the usual refrain: the creation of Leslie Headland (Russian Doll) would be too woke and not respectful of the legacy of Star Wars with its kung-fu choreographies.

An excerpt from an interview with the star of The AcolyteAmandla Stenberg, dating from the release of The Hate U Give, thus went viral via an account explicitly named “End Wokeness”. “The goal was to make white people cry“, declares the African-American actress who then defended her drama on police violence released in 2018.

The other strong argument of the detractors of the series is that The Acolyte would have been made by people who don't like or know Star Wars. The proof ? During an interview, actor Charlie Barnett made a mistake by saying that the Death Star was destroyed by Anakin Skywalker (instead of Luke).

Leslye Headland has nevertheless spoken publicly about her passion for the saga. Born in 1980, she grew up with Star Wars and, as a true geek, she even knows the extended universe, citing The Dark Crusade of the Mad Jedi by Timothy Zahn. “I'm a huge fan of Star Wars and the original trilogy“, she confided to us a few days ago. “Then I loved the Clone Wars series. So being able to write one myself…”

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But even before the launch of the series, the showrunner, openly lesbian, was accused of wanting to advance LGBTQ+ ideas through The Acolyte. Bob Iger may repeat that Disney does not do politics, but the simple presence of minorities in the company's films and series now targets part of the public.

Whether they love it or hate it, the fans are there in any case. The Acolyte generated 4.8 million views on its launch day, the best start for a Disney Plus series this year.