The following story contains spoilers for season 1 of The Acolyte.
TO SAY THE first season of The Acolyte was a bumpy ride would be an understatement. The Star Wars series took lots of risks right from the jump: becoming the first live-action project set in a brand new era, introducing a massive cast of characters, and disconnecting itself from most everything else in recent Star Wars lore, just to name a few. And the results were, well, mixed.
The first half of the show's inaugural season set up an interesting story, centered on a series of connected deaths and some mysterious antagonists. But the show's labored pacing failed to build any momentum after the show's premise earned it a bit of goodwill; some strong lead characters (Lee Jung-jae's Master Sol in particular) were offset by some truly grating others (Jedi Yord and padawan Jecki were not enjoyable). It was Star Wars, and it's always fun to enter that world. But it was a tough watch.
Then the second half of the show hit like it was shot from a cannon. Episode 5, titled "Night," is one of the best things in the Star Wars Disney era. The second half of the show recontextualized a lot of things introduced in the first half of the show, and led by Manny Jacinto's revelatory villain The Stranger (twist!), the show had much more direction and energy.
It wasn't perfect, and, on the Star Wars scale, it certainly wasn't Andor. But it was interesting and generally fun, and some of the highs were very high—especially in some of the fight scenes and ideas of moral complexities in the finale episode, "The Acolyte." There were still some tonal and story issues by the end of the season, but things certainly went out better than they came in, and the story leaves off in a place where it's hard to imagine anyone who stuck the season out won't want to see what happens next.
Here's what we know about a potential season 2 of The Acolyte.
Will The Acolyte get a season 2?
We don't know for sure just yet, but the show is certainly set up for it, and the filmmakers behind the show clearly would like their story to continue.
The Acolyte's story is somewhat self-contained by the end of the season: Master Sol died in a troubling and upsetting moment that closes his story out. Osha and Mae end up, essentially, swapped from where they started. And The Stranger and Osha seem to now be inverting the classic Jedi/Padawan relationship we've seen so many times—but this time, for the dark side.
But there are just as many things left wide open to be explored in a future season: the revelation that The Stranger was, in fact, a former Jedi pupil of Vernestra's gone evil. Mae's wiped memory. The idea that Sol has been purely framed for the crimes that Mae/Osha/The Stranger committed. Whatever the hell is bringing Yoda in at the end. And there was also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it introduction of Darth Plagueis (who was famously mentioned as Palpatine's master in Revenge of the Sith) early in the episode. It's a lot.
In a perfect world, The Acolyte will get a second season to continue (and perhaps close out) its story. But it would require Disney to ignore some of the bad faith trolling and review-bombing that the show unjustly received (and also, hopefully, addressing some of the more earnest critiques that could help make the show better moving forward).
The only Disney+ Star Wars shows to get second seasons so far are The Mandalorian and Andor (the latter of which was always planned as a two-seasons-and-done project). Hopefully, The Acolyte will soon join those two.
What would The Acolyte season 2 be about?
As touched on above, there are a number of open threads left open by The Acolyte that would make for excellent season 2 fodder.
The obvious: the Sith training between master Qimir/The Stranger and Osha. We saw Osha become corrupted and connected with the dark side in real time. And we also maybe saw them romantically connect? Whatever that's all about, it's something very compelling to watch next.
There's also whatever is going on with Darth Plagueis watching them from that cave. Is he Qimir/The Stranger's old master, angered that he's trying to take a new Acolyte/apprentice? Clearly there's more to explore there.
Revealing that Qimir/The Stranger was once a Jedi padawan who has been corrupted is also a backstory that season 2 could and likely would fill out, and also a way for the show to possibly incorporate Yoda more clearly into the plot after season 1's last-second revelation.
Who would be in the cast? And who would play Darth Plagueis?
The Acolyte had a surprisingly high body count for a Disney+ Star Wars show—a lot of characters got killed off.
So, season 2 would likely follow our surviving (and most important) characters. So, Amandla Stenberg (Mae/Osha) and Manny Jacinto (Qimir/The Stranger) would obviously return, while Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) also seems to be involved and maybe on their tail, with Senator Rayencourt (David Harewood) on her tail. Beyond that, though, basically every other season 1 character has died, and so their corresponding cast members would probably not return.
One interesting thing to think about, though, is how the show might incorporate Darth Plagueis, who was clearly teed up for a potential future role. The character would likely be CGI or motion-capture technology, but it would be a good opportunity for a solid actor to fill the role.
Just going to throw a couple down-the-middle casting ideas out there: Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, and Hugo Weaving are three of the best villain actors in the world, and have been for a long time. And somehow, none of them have ever made their way into a Star Wars project. Maybe we can fix that with Darth Plagueis? Just a thought, folks. Just a thought.
