Star Wars: The Acolyte Reportedly Planning to Run for Multiple Seasons

By Patrick Cavanaugh

There's much about the upcoming Disney+ series Star Wars: The Acolyte that audiences don't know about just yet, though a recent report from Deadline might confirm that the plan for the series is to run for multiple seasons. While addressing a lawsuit that Lucasfilm has been entangled in due to producer Karyn McCarthy claiming she was the subject of a "bad faith and wrongful termination," the outlet noted that her commitments to the franchise could have extended for multiple years, implying that the studio might already know that the plan for the series was to develop multiple seasons. However, it's also possible that, with series like The Mandalorian and Star Wars: Andor earning multiple seasons, the lawsuit merely addressed the potential of multiple seasons, even if Lucasfilm didn't already have a plan in place for such a narrative.

The new series is described, "The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated."

Star Wars: The Acolyte is currently in production, with it already confirmed to deliver elements from the galaxy far, far away that audiences haven't yet seen in the franchise. All other released and in-development projects take place during eras that fans have already seen, while The Acolyte will take place a century prior to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. With Lucasfilm investing in the development of an entirely new point in time for the franchise, it's possible that the series could serve a similar purpose to The Mandalorian, where it is a flagship series that introduces characters that then go on to earn their own series. 

The expensive nature of genre television leaves audiences to speculate about whether series are developed with an open-ended storyline or if they have an endpoint ingrained into the narrative momentum, such as how Andor was conceived with a specific timeline. Luckily for audiences, The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau confirmed that he doesn't see an end in sight for that series, as opposed to limiting his story to a specific conclusion.

When asked by Film Stories about whether there's a future for the series beyond what he's already written, Favreau confessed, "Beyond Season 4? Yeah ... Well, I hope so! I hope so. I really love the dynamic of these two characters that in theory don't age. I think that there's a lot of potential energy in that relationship, especially as the baby is no longer a baby, and starts to grow -- but it happens so slowly that we could really play this out, hopefully for a while. But it all depends on the audience if they like what we're doing. As long as they're digging it, we're digging making it and it's a fun gig that I don't want to walk away from any time soon."  

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Stay tuned for details on Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Do you hope the series will run for multiple seasons? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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