When The Acolyte was cancelled by Disney+ earlier this month, many people noticed that merchandise for the divisive Star Wars series had seemingly been pulled from the official online Disney Store.
We're still no sure whether it was a coincidence, an error, or a deliberate move on the House of Mouse's part, but several items do now appear on the site. However, it seems that came as a blow to the show's detractors as they're now review-bombing...t-shirts?!
As we first reported on SFFGazette.com, there are "fans" giving this merch for The Acolyte the lowest scores possible and leaving comments clearly unrelated to the quality of the items. One example reads, "The failure of one, The failure of two, The failure of Disney." How clever!
Of course, this comes as a petition asking Disney to renew The Acolyte has passed 53,000 signatures. Its rival petition, "DON'T renew The Acolyte," sits at a mere 8,200 signatures in comparison.
Neither of those is likely to change the studio's mind as it's been widely reported that the series was expensive to produce and a dip in viewership after the first couple of episodes essentially sealed its fate, anyway. We may get other continuations, though, such as comics or novels.
Lee Jung-jae, who played Jedi Master Sol in the show recently addressed the cancellation when he said, "As you know, my character had died already in the first season. So I wouldn't have appeared in the second season if there was one anyway."
"But personally speaking, I really loved Leslye’s writing. I thought that she was a great writer and director who was very talented in the storytelling, as well as creating characters and creating meaningful structures within the story," the Squid Game actor continued. "So I was actually personally really looking forward to watching a season 2 with her at the helm."
How much merchandise for The Acolyte is in your Star Wars collection? Let is know in the usual place.
In The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems...
The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
The entire first season of The Acolyte is streaming on Disney+.