Star Wars: The Acolyte's Manny Jacinto Weighs in on Review Bombing and Backlash

The actor hopes it doesn't take long for audiences to come around to the series.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Before it had officially premiered anywhere, Star Wars: The Acolyte somehow managed to earn countless negative reviews on various sites, likely the work of trolls who wanted to try to arbitrarily impact a meaningless rating metric. Critics, on the other hand, had much more promising reactions to the show, and while star Manny Jacinto understands where the backlash was coming from, he opened up about how he's well aware that Star Wars has a history of releasing adventures that aren't fully appreciated upon release and earn passionate followings the more time goes on. The first season of Star Wars: The Acolyte is now streaming on Disney+.

"It's a cycle," Jacinto confirmed with GQ about Star Wars fans. "With everything that's come out since the original trilogy, there's always a very passionate group that doesn't like change, that wants that same feeling that they experienced when they were kids, only now they've grown up and their taste has matured and they're more critical about art or the world, and then they are just more precious about the things that they experienced when they were younger."

In regards to how much fans love the prequel films now as opposed to the initial disappointment when they were released, the actor admitted, "Looking at it through that lens is really helpful. And it sucks that sometimes you have to wait 10, 20, 30 years to get your flowers. But the fact that a lot of people are enjoying it right now, I think that's all I can focus on right now. It might just take some time to get other people on board, but at the end of the day, I am so proud of what we made."

Jacinto isn't the only one who was anticipating the series to get review bombed, as showrunner Leslye Headland previously expressed not only how she expected it, but how little it impacted her.

"Everybody knows what review bombing is like. Truly when the show first came out, my publicist was like, 'OK, with the review...' I was like, 'Does anybody take that seriously anymore?'" Headland confirmed to Collider earlier this month. "I understand the point of it, which is that the average viewer would look at the site and say, 'Oh, the user review is really low.' But I think that, if you're in the Star Wars fandom, I think you already know what review bombing is." 

She continued, "So I guess if you're totally new to the fandom and you're considering watching the show, it could affect you. But I also think that my work in the past has been very word-of-mouth anyway, so I don't know if it ... I think that because, behind the scenes, we all know what it is -- it's not that it's not concerning -- but I think it's pretty expected. I would say."

Related:

The first season of Star Wars: The Acolyte is now streaming on Disney+.

What do you think of the actor's remarks? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!  

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