Forbes writer Paul Tassi is not happy that audiences and viewers are rejecting The Acolyte claiming that the low audience score “is embarrassing for the audience scorers.”
(L-R): Little Mae (Leah Brady), Little Osha (Lauren Brady) and Sol (Lee Jung-jae) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
The Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score for Star Wars: The Acolyte currently sits at 15% following the release of three episodes. The average rating is a 1.3 out of 5.
Star Wars: The Acolyte Rotten Tomatoes scores
On IMDb, the show’s rating sits at 3.6. It has an unweighted mean of 3.1 and the majority of all votes (55.2%) are 1 out of 10.
The Acolyte review scores on IMDb
Tassi claims viewers are review bombing the show writing, “Viewers have now mobilized a fleet of TIE bombers to obliterate user scores of The Acolyte wherever possible, namely on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.”
Not only does he claim it’s review bombing, but he rejects any notion that audiences and viewers think the show is objectively terrible, which it is. He declares, “No, I am not going to entertain a debate that this is not review bombing. A 15% score is barely more than a third of the last most controversial Disney Star Wars project, The Last Jedi.
His evidence is that a majority of votes on IMDb are scores of 1 out of 10 and that the show has received more reviews than previous Star Wars shows on Rotten Tomatoes. However, this does not hold water on IMDb given, as seen above, The Acolyte has 49,000 reviews. In comparison Ahsoka has a total of 115,000 reviews, Andor has 169,000 reviews, and Obi-Wan Kenobi has 233,000 reviews.
(L-R): Koril (Margarita Levieva) and Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
As for why he believes people are rejecting the show, Tassi writes, “There are a bunch of dimensions to this, and none of them good. There is absolutely a racial and gender component to this. A clip from star Amandla Stenberg about “making white people cry” was shared tens of thousands of times online, taken out of context from an interview years earlier about her film The Hate U Give. Showrunner Leslye Headland has starred in many YouTube thumbnails lambasting the “woke” nature of the series, but also it allegedly ‘breaking canon.’
Hilariously, Tassi then admits that people don’t like the show because they believe it is lore breaking on a number of levels from the way it portrays the Jedi as space cops to how it described how the twins of Osha and Mae were created by Mother Aniseya likely through dark and unnatural means. So, he claims he’s not going to entertain that it’s not review bombing, but then provides legitimate reasons for why people are actually disliking the show.
Little Mae (Leah Brady) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
As for why Tassi is really upset it goes back to his accusations of the criticisms having a racial and gender component. He’s upset because Star Wars fans reject the meta-narrative around progressive themes he clearly wants people to embrace.
He makes this abundantly clear in his conclusion, “But the worst Star Wars project by an order of magnitude in the history of the series? And it just so happens to be one mostly starring black women? This whole situation is a parody of the modern toxic fanbase of the series, and if you want to disguise it as being upset about ‘canon’ than it shows a distinct lack of understand of both the material of the show and the wider universe.”
(L-R): Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Little Osha (Lauren Brady) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
The promotion of the show made the progressive agenda of the cast and crew unmistakable. Actress Jodie Turner-Smith told Entertainment Weekly back in 2023 that the series is “part of a wave of more inclusive and beautifully represented Star Wars shows. So that felt really cool. And I felt the importance of that, especially in some of the stuff that I got to where everyone really was excited about what they were seeing and what that would maybe mean for different fans — fans that don’t necessarily look like what you normally think the traditional Star Wars fan looks like. Because if there’s anything that I learned from this show, it’s that the Star Wars fan is varied.”
Charlie Barnett similarly told Entertainment Weekly, “I don’t think I could have ever imagined myself as a Jedi. Yes, one, because I was not reflected for so many times throughout these films in the past. But it was also something that didn’t equate in my mind. I don’t know about you guys as well.”
He added, “So to see such a diverse group played out now, I know that it’s going be a healthy reflection on so many other young people and old people. No ageism allowed in this. It’s Star Wars we can all fit. I think it’s going to be a really impactful. It’s gonna be a cool moment for me for sure, I can tell you that.”
Little Osha (Lauren Brady) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Showrunner Leslye Headland also attacked fans in The New York Times telling the outlet, “As a fan myself, I know how frustrating some ‘Star Wars’ storytelling in the past has been. I’ve felt it myself.”
In a follow-up text message she then declared that Star Wars fans who oppose race-based casting are not actually Star Wars fans. She said, “I stand by my empathy for ‘Star Wars’ fans. But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”
(L-R): Amandla Stenberg , set PA Taylor Young, director Leslye Headland and director of photography Chris Teague on the set of Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Headland would also claim that C-3PO is gay and that R2-D2 is a lesbian. She also confirmed that the show is “the gayest Star Wars.”
We are happy to report that #TheAcolyte is “arguably the gayest #StarWars” yet. 🌈 Happy Pride Month! 😉 pic.twitter.com/3oJSykc4Kq
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 4, 2024
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy also attacked Star Wars fans telling The New York Times, “My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That’s an easy decision for me.”
She continued, “Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying. I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm attends the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
On top of this Star Wars creator George Lucas also made it abundantly clear just head of the release of The Acolyte that Lucasfilm has no understanding of Star Wars or the Force.
He said, “I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was … who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The Force, for example, nobody understood the Force.”
He added, “When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.”
George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson on the red carpet at Cannes via AFP News Agency YouTube
What do you make of Tassi seething and attacking fans in the wake of The Acolyte’s Audience Scores going ever lower?
