The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: August 23, 2024
The Acolyte is gone, Andor will be back, Outlaws drops soon
Hello there
Welcome back to this week’s edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. We’ve got a fun one this week. Well, maybe fun. The Acolyte has been cancelled. That’s not fun. Well, it is for some people, but not me. I make some wild predictions about what season 2 of Andor has in store. Star Wars: Outlaws is almost here and we got a new trailer with gameplay footage. Plus all the usual nonsense you’ve come to expect here at the Death Star Human Resources Department.
As always, I appreciate you reading and/or subscribing. You should do both. Now, let’s get to it.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
So prior to this spring, I was vaguely aware there was a kids cartoon called “Bluey” but I had no clue what it was about. Then in the spring, long time real-life friend and Death Star HR reader Obi-Wan Kenippy and his family came to visit Death Star HR HQ. His youngling is a fan of Bluey. I have to admit, for a kids cartoon it’s pretty good and as the writer and occasional editor of a weekly newsletter dedicated to space wizards, I’m not exactly in a position to be too judgy about it adults watching a kids show. Then the YouTube algorithm served me up with this.
Not bad, I laughed. Obi-Wan Kenippy also texted me to say Bluey has a higher IMDB score than The Wire, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones. I left him on read, because I honestly didn’t even know what to do with that information.
The Acolyte Thread Unravels
Unresolved cliff-hangers are never fun, but that’s what we’re stuck with. On Monday Deadline confirmed that The Acolyte will not be getting a second season.
EXCLUSIVE: The story of The Acolyte will not continue, with Lucasfilm opting not to proceed with a second season of the Star Wars offshoot starring Amandla Stenberg, sources tell Deadline.
Word of the decision comes more than a month after the eight-episode first season of the series from creator, director, executive producer and showrunner Leslye Headland wrapped its run on Disney+.
My initial reaction is this sucks. While The Acolyte was not perfect, I thought there were some pacing issues and some of the dialog almost felt like it was an homage to George Lucas (not in a good way) I did think the series showed enough and offered enough new ideas and interesting characters that I wanted to see what Lesley Headland had next. Even though all the Jedi from Brendok are dead, there were some obvious stories for season 2.
Darth Smiley and Osha. The most obvious one. Is Osha going to become a Sith? Is she going to keep trying to get revenge on the Jedi, simply because that’s what Sith do?
Would Vernestra even try to go after Darth Smiley? She’s the only Jedi left who’s aware he’s out there. But with certain factions of the Senate not exactly fans of the Jedi, would she risk exposing that the Sith are out there? Which of course brings us to…
Senator Rayencourt and the Jedi Order. As much as I love some good Dark Side hi-jinks, give me Republic politics and the Jedi Order having to defend themselves on charges that they are a bunch of emotionally stunted weirdos in robes.
Where is Mother Koril? Yes, I am still beating this dead Bantha. Look, it was awesome when we got a little Darth Plagueis cameo, but it would have made a lot more sense to have Mother Korill be Darth Smiley’s master. Why would Plagueis pick those four specific Jedi to kill? There’s no logical reason for him to have a beef with Sol, Indara, Kelanacca, and Torbin. But Mother Korill sure has a reason.
Can Mae recover her memories? Would Vernestra try some not-so-ethical Jedi techniques to get them back if he meant she might be able to track down Osha?
That would be a pretty entertaining season two, if I say so myself. There’s a lot to work with.
There are certain are corners of the Star Wars fanbase that are treating this announcement with unbridled glee. That because of their review bombing and their negative YouTube videos, they’ve somehow scored a victim against the WOKE MIND VIRUS and now surely Disney will…well…I’m not exactly sure what they think Disney will do.. I’m not sure they even have any idea what they want Disney to do, other than NO GIRLZ IN STAR WARS. That seems to be their guiding principle.
I don’t believe these “fans” were enough to get The Acolyte cancelled, but I am sure Disney takes them into account. It would be tough to argue that the backlash to The Last Jedi and all the whining about Luke Skywalker as a bitter boomer and the audacity to cast Kelly Marie Tran lead Disney to run back to J.J. Abrams and say “make people like us again!” Still, empowering these fans, or even giving the appearance of empowering them will have negative consequences for Star Wars. As Ben Travis writes in a great article:
There are concerns, too, that The Acolyte ending abruptly will – inadvertently – embolden the darker side of the Star Wars fandom. It’s undeniable; they exist, loud in voice, probably smaller in number than their presence suggests. But before a single frame of The Acolyte had emerged, they were perpetuating a narrative against the show. That it was ‘woke’ (whatever the hell that actually means), that it would be the end of Star Wars, that it was anti-George Lucas, that it was going to ruin the Jedi. The show’s mere existence (before it actually existed) caused ire in the worst corners of online discourse. These are not people who watched the show and didn’t like it (a valid response for some viewers). These are people who didn’t like it before they’d even seen it. It won’t be the intended effect, but those obnoxious and unwelcome voices will only feel vindicated by The Acolyte’s premature ending.
You should read the whole thing. It’s really good.
The real reason The Acolyte got renewed? We’ll probably never know for sure but the likely cause of death is plain old low ratings:
Driven by interest into the venerable space franchise, The Acolyte got off to a strong start when it launched June 4 with two episodes, generating 4.8M views in its first day on the streamer to rank as the biggest series premiere on Disney+ this year. The tally rose to 11.1 million views globally after five days of streaming. Corroborating Disney’s data, the series made its debut on Nielsen’s Top 10 originals chart in its premiere week at No. 7 (488 million minutes viewed), climbing to No. 6 the following week.
But The Acolyte could not sustain the momentum, dropping out of the Top 10 in Week 3 and staying off before returning at No. 10 after the release of the finale (335M minutes, believed to be the lowest for a Star Wars series finale).
I’ll speculate the big drop off is related to two reasons. The first, while the first two episodes were pretty exciting, a lot of people may have felt cheated that Carrie-Anne Moss died right away. I don’t think it was ever explicitly said that she was going to be a big part of the show, but her character and the fact that Trinity was making the jump from The Matrix to Star Wars was a big selling point that the show was using.
The second reason is, unfortunately, the culture war one. The third episode, “Destiny” was the first of the two flashback episodes where we were introduced to Mother Aniseya and the rest of the witches and the idea of the coven of (presumably) lesbian space witches was enough to send the more, ahem, vocal elements of the fanbase into a frenzy of performative outrage. I’m not sure the discourse around the show was every really able to recover.
It’s unlikely that YouTubers foaming at the mouth about space witches would really be enough to cause The Acolyte not to be renewed. In addition to the ratings drop off, there is the fact that The Acolyte was an expensive show.
Many fans feel that the show's high budget was the main reason why the studio cancelled "The Acolyte," with X (formerly known as Twitter) user @anikestis writing, "Giving a huge budget to a show which is brand new to most people was a big risk." However, while the fan understands that the show got canned for business reasons, they praised "The Acolyte" for its entertaining depiction of the galaxy's High Republic era.
Disney reportedly spent $180 million on "The Acolyte," so the assessment that it was removed from the schedule in an effort to save money makes sense. With that in mind, let's see what other Star Wars fans are saying about the unfortunate news development.
The article goes on to note that Disney spent $2 million more per episode than HBO did with House of the Dragon. Just for comparison, Andor reportedly had a budget of $250 million, but did 4 additional episodes. The first season of The Mandalorian was $100 million, and Obi-Wan Kenobi was $150 million. Disney isn’t exactly a small company but between the Star Wars budgets and the Marvel budgets, we’re talking real money here.
It’s no secret Disney, like a lot of the streamers, aren’t actually making money.
In order to pacify disgruntled stockholders, Disney had to cut $7.5 billion of costs, including a lot of the exclusive streaming content it had commissioned. Despite this, Disney+ has burned up more than $11.4 billion of operating losses since it was launched and isn't forecast to even make a profit until the end of the year.
The idea that society as a whole is in trouble because companies don’t think past the next quarterly report is a dead tauntaun I’ve been beating for a long time, but that’s not the point there. Well, not the main point.
If Disney needs to stop the bleeding, both in dollars and subscribers, for Disney+, the surest way to do that is not take risks. Make no mistake, The Acolyte was a risk for Disney. It’s the first of their streaming shows to exist outside any previous Star Wars tv shows or movies. Yes, you can argue the first season of The Mandalorian and maybe you’d be right, but making Grogu a Baby Yoda was a pure nostalgia play. Would The Mandalorian have been a hit without Grogu? Some shows are a little less connected, like Andor. Others are there to completely get eyeballs due to the love of a well established character like Book of Boba Fett. And yes, I know that Yoda and Darth Plagueis had cameos to tie back to the larger galaxy and there was the Ki-Adi-Mundi appearance that made people mad for very normal reasons. But you have maybe 2 minutes of screen time out of 8 episodes of established characters.
Anyway, I got a little sidetracked there. My point was making a show not tied to any established Star Wars TV or movie with a diverse cast was going to be a risk. We should want Star Wars to take risks. We should demand more from Disney and from Star Wars than just telling the same story over and over again. I think we as fans often give mixed signals. We want new and different and not the same old same old. And then complain when we get it. As always, I go back to The Simpsons.
If Disney wants to make a completely realistic Star Wars show about magic robots, I’m in for 8 - 12 episodes.
Let’s Engage in Wild Speculation
It’s generally agreed about that Andor is the best of the Disney+ streaming TV shows. It’s without a doubt the least Star Wars-y show of the bunch and honestly, if you changed the location to our galaxy you could turn it into a political thriller that has Diego Luna trying to help out rebels in a random country over throw a dictator. There aren’t any Jedi or at least there aren’t any Jedi yet. It won’t surprise me if Luthen is revealed as a Jedi or at least Jedi-adjacent. But it wasn’t part of the Skywalker Saga explicitly. It was, as I often say here, a gritty warning about fascism that we should be heeding but we’re not. We got a little bit of new information about season 2 of Andor, and while there’s a lot that hasn’t been confirmed, there’s enough that I’m going to engage in some wild speculation as to what I think is going to happen.
What do we know about season 2? As far as I have read, all the characters who survived season 1 will be back. There’s going to be 12 episodes. The season covers 4 years of Cassian’s life from when season 1 leaves off right up to the beginning of Rogue One. It has also been confirmed we’re going to see Orson Krenic, Saw Gerrera, and sassy droid K-2SO. Based on that, I think we’ll see the following.
We’re going to get four, 3 episode arcs. Like how they did the last season of The Clone Wars. Each one will take place in a different year.
The most obvious story will be how Cassian and KayToo because BFF. Maybe we get to find out who re-programs K-2SO and give him a sense of humor, as Imperial droids are notoriously not funny.
Orson Krennic’s story will involve Fascist Barbie Dedra Meero since they are both part of the Imperial Security Bureau. It seems like that her possible boy toy Syril Karn will have received a promotion to the ISB as well. I’m not quite sure how they would interact since they are in different parts of the ISB. Maybe Krennic is concerned about a more organized rebellion trying to find Death Star plans.
We get Saw Gerrera’s falling out with the fledgling rebellion. Saw is not a man who half-asses things. He views Mon Mothma’s rebellion as ineffective and not willing to do what it takes to defeat the Empire. Mon Mothma is going to be back for season 2, seems likely they’re going to have a showdown and a split in the rebellion.
I haven’t decided on a 4th “series” for lack of a better way to put it. Maybe there are still some unannounced new characters. I’ve had this idea, perhaps it’s a Force vision, that they end the series by leading up to the start of Rogue One. Looking for Jyn Erso and Saw Gererra. The series ends with Cassian getting on the ship to head to the Ring of Kafrene to meet his contact.
There isn’t an official release date for Andor season 2 yet. It won’t be this year but will likely be sometime 2025. If my predictions are right, I’ll be sure to link back to this piece to show how smart I am. If they’re all wrong, well, we’ll never speak of this again.
Star Wars Outlaws is Making Me Buy a PS5
Earlier this week a new trailer showing off the gameplay for Star Wars: Outlaws was released.
I don’t know what any of that techno-babble means, but man this game looks like it’s going to be fun. The release date for Outlaws is next week, August 29th to be exact.
Just enough time for me to turn on paid subscriptions and get enough money for a PS5 or gaming PC. Or I’ll have to rob a spice freighter or whatever you do in the show. Hopefully there will be some reviews to post next week.
Things My Wife Has Said About Star Wars
Just an average Wednesday at Death Star HR HQ with Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan.
Her: Did you decide what you want to order for dinner tonight?
Me: No. I was too busy thinking about Darth Plagueis.
Her: Who? No, wait, nevermind. Nope. I don’t want to know.
Me: Too late. I’m going to find the novel and pull up the Wookieepedia page. Remember the dude peeking out at the end of The Acolyte on the Sith planet?
Her: Oh, you mean Jar Jar Fett?
Me: I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.
Her: Or Boba Hutt?
Folks, there’s no level that she won’t sink to to troll me.
This Day in Star Wars History
This week we’ve got two births and one book release on August 23 to note.
In 1935, Ronald Falk was born in Geelong, Australia. He voiced diner owner and Kamino dart-expert Dexter Jettster in Attack of the Clones.
Ray Park was born in 1974. Park is of course famous for playing Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. He also portrayed Darth Maul for his surprise appearance in Solo and was in the motion capture suit for Darth Maul’s appearance season 7 of The Clone Wars. I am curious how Park felt or still feels about never getting to do Maul’s lines. He was overdubbed by Peter Serafinowicz and Sam Witwer. David Prowse was notoriously pissed off that he got overdubbed by James Earl Jones.
The book Remembering Ralph McQuarrie: Dreamer and Visionary was published. Ralph McQuarrie was a concept artist who worked on the Original Trilogy. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say he’s probably one of the 5 most important people of the O.G. Star Wars crew. If you like the look of Star Wars, in a large part you have McQuarrie to thank for that. The book is a collection of “unpublished artwork, rare photographs, and loving tributes from dozens of Ralph's colleagues, friends and fans. I am going to keep an eye out for at the bookstore.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
One of my core beliefs about the Star Wars universe is that if you really want to get into the weird side of Star Wars, you have to go to the comic books. Which is what we’re doing today. Meet Orcon. No, that’s not Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe but the vibes are similar.
Based on his limited Wookieepedia entry, he sounds like a bit of a jerk.
Orcon was an aquatic being who lived underwater on the Forest Moon of Endor. He rode a devil serpent, which he controlled with a trident.
He would often invade the Underwater Kingdom to steal food pearls from the Underwater dwellers.
It always comes back to Wookieepedia food entries.
News From the HoloNet
Most Valuable Vintage Toy Record Already Broken Again by Another Rocket-Firing Boba Fett
If the buyer is reading this, I’ll swap you my collection of Episode I pop cans for your Boba Fett. Deal?
ANDOR Star Adria Arjona Says Season 2 Is "So Much Better," and "Tony Gilroy Really Outdid Himself"
Spill, Bix! Tell us everything!
Why Wasn't Ahsoka Tano In The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy?
Spoiler alert. Because she wasn’t created yet. I wonder if we’ll ever get a Special Edition of the Prequels where they squeeze Ahsoka back in.
How Star Wars Outlaws Actor Humberly González Made Kay Vess Her Own
Stop making me want this, I’m begging you.
That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.
Little behind on my Death Star reading, but another great edition. The comment about Andor Season 2 being "so much better" is sending me. I didn't even consider that a possibility.
I just want to say that Syrill Karn is one of the greatest characters ever, and I would watch him eating breakfast cereal for twelve episodes. That is all.