Scrapped 'Acolyte' sign of Disney's anti-woke pivot



"The Acolyte" won't be back for a second season. Sensible business decision ... or sabotage?

Some vocal defenders of the recently canceled Disney+ series seem to be suggesting the latter.

'Disney seems to be quietly killing off their "progressive audience" shows like "Acolyte." The numbers are no longer sustainable.'

Rolling Stone magazine lays the blame on "the worst" of "Star Wars" fans.

Meanwhile, an online petition to bring back the show attributes its copious negative reviews to “a small fraction of loud trolls.”

Occam's lightsaber

Back here on Earth, all signs point to a simpler explanation: People just didn't watch it.

The "Star Wars" series got off to a decent start with audiences, boasting 4.8 million views for its first two episodes combined.

Disney crowed that it was the biggest premiere on Disney+ in 2024. Technically true, but not so impressive when you realize only two other shows debuted on the platform this year. Plus, adding up viewer numbers for two episodes is a bit of a cheat.

Despite this initial hype, viewership for "The Acolyte" steadily trailed off in the subsequent weeks.

Deadline reported that inside sources learned of the cancelation after just eight episodes, about a month after the season wrapped up.'

Please clap

The show's future seemed to be in jeopardy when director and creator Leslye Headland asked viewers in July to support the show and share it with friends even if they thought it was mediocre.

"Even if you were kind of like 'whatever' on the show, if you enjoyed the performances, get on their social media, let them know that you love them, or that you support them or that the performances were great."

Game designer and media critic Mark Kern told Align that he thought the cancelation was a signal of an upcoming pivot on the part of Disney.

"Disney seems to be quietly killing off their 'progressive audience' shows like 'Acolyte.' The numbers are no longer sustainable," Kern said. "I believe the pivot is happening and new shows in development will begin to focus on story and quality instead of promoting a message."

A bad rap

It didn't help Disney that actors involved with "The Acolyte" were consistently in headlines for all the wrong reasons, particularly series lead Amandla Stenberg.

Critics of the series inspired Stenberg to release a hip-hop diss track aimed at her oppressors. The young actress spit bars condemning slavery and its effect on her psyche.

"I'm sick and f***ing tired of suppressing my rage. 400 years of taking their bulls*** to compartmentalize like my ancestors had to encaged," she rapped.

"If you don't confront the pain that you live with it'll manifest as addiction, disease, and hate. I've seen the infection repression can give ya, I'm not gonna be the next one sent to an early grave," she concluded.

Separately, co-star Manny Jacinto gave remarks in late July about being cut out of a different project, Tom Cruise's "Top Gun: Maverick."

Jacinta said it "wasn't shocking" that his scenes were cut out given the fact that Cruise had written a movie for himself, but strangely, the lesson he took from the experience was that non-white people in Hollywood need to pursue making movies that are specifically for their race.

"It's up to us — Asian-Americans, people of color — to be that [for ourselves]. We can't wait for somebody else to do it. If we want bigger stories out there, we have to make them for ourselves."

Lesbian Force witches

It wasn't only off-screen behavior that spoiled "The Acolyte;" creator Headland sought to fundamentally change "Star Wars" lore by introducing a litany of progressive characters who brought with them previously unheard of explanations of the Star Wars universe.

The biggest change in the story was the idea that The Force was controlled by a coven who could — and did — perform an immaculate conception for a duo of lesbian witches.

The consistent injection of far-left dogma into the story, which Stenberg described as "so gay already," didn't appear to be quite what fans were looking for.

"It is good news that this show was cancelled," said John F. Trent, editor of culture and gaming site That Park Place.

"It prevents Leslye Headland and her conspirators from doing even more damage to Star Wars by changing the Force, injecting feminism, and attempting to subvert morality."

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'Star Wars' show ‘The Acolyte’ can’t even do left-wing propaganda right: ‘It still FAILS’



"Star Wars" show "The Acolyte" cost $180 million to produce, and it’s finally over.

But after the season finale, Lauren Chen is wondering where the money went — or whether the writers of the show are even sane.

“I’m beginning to think that the writers behind ‘The Acolyte,’ they’re just bad people. Maybe even psychopaths,” Chen says, adding, “Overall, where this money went, I have no idea.”

In the finale, the protagonist of the show kills her old Jedi master, Sol, in cold blood, and it's presented as being “what’s right.”

“Is she really the protagonist? Like, I’m sorry, am I still supposed to like or relate to this character in any way, shape, or form?” Chen asks.

“Not only does basically the only good character in this show get murdered in the finale by the little girl that he helped raise and that he did rescue from these weird space witches, but on top of that, his memory and his legacy are completely dragged through the mud,” she adds.

The show itself was supposed to revolve around the theme of ambiguous morality, Chen doesn’t think it did a good job of that at all.

“Such disappointing stuff. And here’s the thing: The entire morality of this show essentially hinges on the fact that the writers believe that Sol was in the wrong, but they didn’t really do a good job convincing the audience otherwise,” Chen says.

While Chen doesn’t believe the show is the “worst thing” she’s ever seen, she says it’s up there.

“It’s terrible. It’s not good as a piece of "Star Wars" fiction, and it’s just not good as a show standing on its own. Like, it’s one thing if there were a show that kind of poked holes into "Star Wars" lore and canon, but at least it was entertaining to watch and decent,” she says.

“This is just not good as a piece of media. It’s not very interesting, it’s not every entertaining, and heck, even if we just look at it purely as a form of propaganda to push a social message, which it seems like is really all that the creators were interested in doing, it still fails, because the message it pushes is terrible,” she continues.

“It justifies murder, tries to add moral ambiguity into something that’s unambiguously bad, like having a temper or no control over your feelings. It’s just a failure all around,” she adds.


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Will new 'Agatha All Along' series reverse Marvel’s downward trend?



Marvel’s surrender to wokeness has all but ruined the franchise. Longtime comic book fans have fled for hills when their favorite MCU characters have been gender-bent, race-bent, or altered to be more socially acceptable.

However, Disney+ will soon debut a new series called “Agatha All Along,” which follows Agatha Harkness, the villain from Marvel Studios’ "WandaVision.”

Could “Agatha” reverse Marvel’s downward spiral?

Lauren Chen, Blaze Media’s cinema critic, discusses the upcoming series.

Disney's NEXT FLOP: 'Agatha' Trailer Breakdownwww.youtube.com

Although the series won’t drop until September, the trailer alone has Lauren fearing that the show will be yet another money pit.

First, she doesn’t think the series will generate enough interest.

“It's not like this was a particularly popular character in the comics and even in ‘WandaVision,’ the show that introduced her,” she says.

Further, according to rumors Lauren is privy to, “the reason they're giving Agatha her own series is not just because she's potentially another girlboss character they can exploit, but also because they are hoping to resurrect Scarlet Witch in the MCU.”

Even the show's producers seem wary about the series, given that it was announced in 2021 but is premiering three years later.

“It definitely seems like the prolonged production period was due, at least in part, to uncertainty on behalf of the show's creators,” says Lauren, adding that the series “has had four different names at different points in time” – names that “had already been announced to the public,” further solidifying the theory that there’s an air of doubt surrounding the show.

MCU fans are also skeptical about the series appearing to be “more horror-centric” than other MCU shows, but Lauren would enjoy a darker series “if Disney could pull it off.”

As for the series’ wokeness meter, rumors have suggested that “they may make Agatha herself gay or at the very least bisexual,” says Lauren, referencing a Bounding into Comics article.

“I think we should expect this show to be completely lockstep in line with the M-She-U as of late,” she predicts. “I personally cannot wait to see how much of a flop [‘Agatha All Along’] ends up being.”

For all its faults, Lauren does see a couple of bright spots for the show.

“It doesn’t look cheap,” she says.

And Aubrey Plaza stars in it, but Lauren doubts that “she's going to be enough to save this series.”

To hear more about “Agatha All Along,” watch the clip above.

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'The Acolyte' is a $180 million WOKE DISASTER that keeps getting worse



"Star Wars: The Acolyte" is an absolute disaster.

The new "Star Wars" spin-off series was created by Leslye Headland for Disney+, and it’s turning the beloved world George Lucas built upside down.

“The show’s creator is actually doing interviews trying to do damage control and defend the show and justify the fact that she’s essentially doing a 180 from what ‘Star Wars’ fans have come to know and expect from the franchise,” Lauren Chen explains.

The show cost $180 million to produce, which Chen notes means “that each single episode had more of a budget than the entirety of Godzilla, minus one.”

While "Star Wars" fans have come to know the Jedi as the good guys, the series is now attempting to portray them as “the patriarchs of the universe who are these unjust authoritarians who are trying to clamp down on the oppressed space witch lesbians of the universe.”

“I think showing a different perspective is always fine, whether it’s entertainment or the real world, frankly, actual politics and history, but in this series, they actually portray the Jedi as doing bad stuff, as being the bad guys engaging in bad actions,” Chen explains.

“So, no, it goes beyond just ‘Oh, trying to portray a different perspective,’” she adds.

While Headland claimed the series has a “morally gray narrative,” Chen doesn’t believe she’s accomplished that whatsoever.

“Morally gray is what a good writer could have accomplished, but I feel like these writers, they lack any nuance. It actually takes finesse and skill, I think, to write something morally ambiguous, and so these people just fail like at best,” she explains.

Instead of a successful narrative flip, Chen says what “Star Wars” fans were given is “Leslye Headland and her DEI crew.”

Headland’s wife, Rebecca Henderson, was also cast in the show as the alien Vernestra, who Chen says is the “worst actress on the show.”

“So, if you’re wondering how on earth she got cast in this, uh, nepotism, basically,” Chen says.


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Disney VP caught on hidden camera EXPOSING woke DEI by James O’Keefe



James O’Keefe has done it again.

The investigative journalist confirmed suspicions that Disney has “gone woke” in his latest undercover expose with his organization, the O’Keefe Media Group.

The group captured a Disney executive on camera admitting that Disney prioritizes skin color rather than merit when it comes to hiring employees.

The executive, senior vice president and team lead over at 20th Television Michael Giordano told one of OMG’s investigators that there have certainly “been times where, you know, there’s no way we’re hiring a white male for this.”

“Just kind of unspoken?” the undercover journalist says to Giordano.

“There are times when it’s spoken,” Giordano confirms, before explaining the way it’s been phrased is, “There’s no way we’re hiring a white male for this role.”

Giordano had also told the undercover journalist that a promotion was likely not in the cards for him because he is seen as a white male.

“As far as Disney is concerned I’m a white male. That’s not who they’re looking to promote at the moment,” he said.

Once the report was released, Giordano was let go from his position.

Lauren Chen is not shocked that Disney has been caught.

“For a long time, people like me have looked at Disney and wondered, okay, if they care about diversity and woke so much, why don’t they still have diverse characters but at least have a well-written, you know, well-made show?” Chen says.

“I think it’s pretty clear here that the reason why they don’t have that at least quality with the wokeness is because they’re also prioritizing skin color when it comes to the people who are making their shows, writing their films, managing their company,” she adds.

While there are obviously talented writers of color, population-wise there are not enough to hire only those of color.

“They’re having to boost up people who probably aren’t as good at their jobs as they should be, simply because they like the way they look,” Chen comments.


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‘Dr Who’ has WORST RATINGS in 60-year history after taking a ‘decisively queer step’



“Dr. Who” has been a fan favorite for the 60 years it’s been on air, but with its recent record low ratings on Disney Plus — that’s all changing.

“Not only is the show absolutely not doing well, but it is failing spectacularly. Like it is doing so poorly,” Lauren Chen of “Pseudo-Intellectual” comments, noting that the “show has been on the decline for a while now.”

Since the first episode of the season, fewer and fewer people are tuning in for more.

The issues began with the portrayal of Dr. Who — who is now a crossdressing black man — and went downhill from there.

“They were so focused on trying to pander to black people and queer people and get them interested in the show, they forgot about welcoming, like, just actual Dr. Who fans to watch the show,” Chen says.

“In fact, sometimes, they did the exact opposite. They told those fans to not watch the show if they weren’t happy with being force-fed progressive propaganda, and I’m not even kidding,” she adds.

The main actor has told people to not watch the show, addressing his critics in an April 2024 interview with Variety’s Ellise Shafer by saying, “Don’t watch. Turn off the TV. Go and touch grass, please, for God’s sake.”

This same sentiment was shared by a drag queen who plays a villain in the show.

“I know a lot of people might not even watch this season of 'Dr. Who' because it’s taking such a decisively queer step. However, if they watch, I think they’ll see that we’re just actors playing characters. And if they don’t watch it, then who needs ‘em? I truly believe that for every fan we lose to transphobia, we’re going to have two to three more coming in because they’re excited for trans representation,” Jinkx Monsoon said.

“How is that prediction working out for you?” Chen laughs.


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ANOTHER Disney fail: ‘The Acolyte’ 'Star Wars' series fails miserably after only two episodes



Just a few days ago, “The Acolyte” — a television series that merges the "Star Wars" franchise with murder mystery — dropped on Disney+.

When the series was first announced, Lauren Chen, BlazeTV’s cinema pundit, was stoked.

“How sick would it be to have an actual 'Star Wars' series that was simultaneously a dark thriller murder mystery?” she asks. “I think that could have been amazing.”

But her excitement quickly deflated once she started actually watching the series.

“Now that I've actually seen the first two episodes, though, I am quite sure that the people behind the show — Leslye Headland, specifically — doesn't know what a murder mystery is because if she did, I feel like she would never describe this show in such a way,” says Lauren.

“As someone who does like murder mysteries, I want darkness, I want intrigue, I want mystery. What I got with ‘The Acolyte’ was not that.”

For starters, the murderer isn’t a secret. In fact, the filmmakers reveal this information almost immediately.

“If in the opening scene we see exactly who did the killing and how they did it. It's not a murder mystery,” scoffs Lauren.

But that’s not the only way “The Acolyte” breaks the murder mystery genre code.

“The [plot] twist was revealed like 20 minutes into the first episode,” sighs Lauren, adding that “any intrigue, any tension, or mystery that the show ever manages to build up, it dashes almost immediately.”

For example, one of the major conflicts “is solved almost immediately,” leaving audience members yawning.

“This is just not how murder mysteries work,” critiques Lauren.

To hear the remainder of her analysis (including spoilers!), watch the review below.


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Disney’s 'Dr. Who' goes LGBTQ with cast of gender bending characters



It only took around four minutes for the first transgender character to show up in Disney’s new "Dr. Who" series — and viewers are overwhelmingly not pleased.

“Not only were we very quickly presented as viewers with a trans singer, but for some reason, the show’s writers also thought it would be appropriate and fun to portray this iteration of the Doctor as someone who, you know, likes to get down at gay dance clubs,” Lauren Chen comments.

The Doctor is also wearing a skirt in the opening scene.

“Him and the costume director have been very clear that he actually wanted to gender-bend the Doctor’s wardrobe in this series for some reason,” Chen says.

While the gayification of the series is undeniably a massive reason for the negative feedback, the show itself isn’t written well enough to make up for it.

“This shows attempt at providing fantastical yet sciency-seeming premises for these outrageous events to occur,” Chen explains is “failing awfully.”

The show predictably has a whopping 97% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes — but only a 36% audience rating.

“Because of course, it’s new, it’s gay, it’s black. That must make it wonderful,” Chen says, noting that one of the show's main villains is also a drag queen who used to be on "RuPaul’s Drag Race."

“I get that Russell T. Davies wants to be inclusive and affirming of LGBT people, but really I think it’s gotten to the point now where 'Dr. Who' just exists as a platform for him to expose the audience to diverse elements,” she adds.




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New ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film is already digging its own grave



Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is on the list of top 100 movie characters of all time for good reason – his character is quirky, witty, and stunningly charismatic. He’s a huge reason the franchise has grossed more than $4.5 billion worldwide. Removing Captain Jack from the film series would just be ... well, a death sentence.

But Disney, which owns the franchise, seems to be a big fan of death sentences these days. Its woke agenda has cost the entertainment conglomerate literally billions of dollars.

But clearly massive profit loss is not going to deter Disney from shoving its progressive narrative down the throats of its waning audience.

In what is certain to be another cinematic disaster, Disney has decided to replace Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow with a black female version in the franchise’s sixth film, which is reported to come out in 2025.

To make matters worse, producer Jerry Bruckheimer said the film will not be a new storyline but rather “a reboot,” meaning that Jack Sparrow is indeed being replaced.

Lauren Chen calls the move “a huge mistake.”

And she’s not the only one who feels this way. According to an article from Express titled “Pirates of the Caribbean 6 without Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow ‘doomed to failure,”’ “Fan hearts sank as deep as Davy Jones’ locker following rumors that Disney is planning on Pirates 6 having a black female lead rather than Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow at the helm of the Black Pearl.”

“Without [Sparrow], what is the draw?” asks Lauren. “It doesn’t really seem like there is one at all honestly.”

Although nothing is certain as of now, according to unofficial online reports, Ayo Edebiri from “The Bear” is rumored to play Sparrow’s feminized replacement.

“I'm not necessarily against the idea of a reboot,” says Lauren, but “a diverse female lead? No, I'm sorry.”

“Disney clearly has not learned their lesson here. They didn't learn it with ‘Star Wars,’ they didn't learn it with ‘Indiana Jones,’ and if they move forward with this iteration of the project, they're going to find themselves once more losing millions and millions of dollars.”

To hear more predictions for the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean,” watch the clip below.


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New 'Star Wars' show ‘The Acolyte’ is already a woke disaster months before its debut



This summer, a new "Star Wars" production called “The Acolyte” will drop on Disney+, and like most Disney productions, this series will likely push political propaganda and alienate the original fanbase.

“It looks like this series is going to be the worst that Disney 'Star Wars' has ever seen,” sighs Lauren Chen.

Unfortunately, the premise of the series appears quite strong, making it a missed opportunity to connect with longtime "Star Wars" fans.

According to Comic Book Resources, “‘The Acolyte’ is set approximately 100 years before the first prequel trilogy film, ‘Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.’ The story will primarily follow Stenberg's former Padawan as she reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes.”

“Maybe it's just me and my love of mystery thrillers, but that as a premise sounds kind of interesting,” says Lauren.

But the compelling premise is where the good news ends, unfortunately.

“The people involved with the project” are why the series will likely take a nosedive. For starters, the creator of the series is Leslye Headland, who Lauren says is “fully unprepared and unqualified to be heading up a 'Star Wars' project” granted her previous work almost exclusively revolves around “shows that are about female promiscuity.”

“[Disney] keeps throwing creatives at these huge, blockbuster, sci-fi projects who have absolutely no experience with huge, blockbuster, sci-fi projects,” she laments, adding that “there are executives at Disney who are obsessed with DEI and who know nothing about actually making films and TV shows.”

Further, Comic Book Resources reported that Headland revealed “‘The Acolyte’ would approach the Jedi from a different perspective, proving that they were wrong in ‘The Phantom Menace.”’

"When you're doing something completely original like we are, you want to question the status quo of the era that you live in," Headland stated.

“Why does everything now have to be subversive? Why does everything new have to undermine what came before?” asks Lauren.

To make matters worse, the star of the series, Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue in “The Hunger Games,” is well known for her “LGBTQ+, BLM activism on social media.”

“She is certainly one of those celebrities who makes her political and social positions the headline no matter what she does, so her involvement in this series, I think, is concerning in and of itself,” says Lauren.

But it seems like that’s exactly what Headland was looking for, as she’s made it known that she created “The Acolyte” with Stenberg in mind for the lead role.

In Stenberg’s interview with C Magazine, she said, “In the context of the Star Wars universe, it’s a time of great peace, theoretically. It’s also a time of an institution, and it’s a time in which conceptions around the Force are very strict. And I think what we’re trying to explore within our show is when an institution has a singular conception of how power can be used…We try to provide a lot of different perspectives and answers to that question. The idea is to kind of honor the ethos of Star Wars and ideas around the Force and also challenge them, hopefully harmoniously.”

“Why can't these shows be character- and lore-driven rather than thematically driven?” asks Lauren, adding that the answer is “because anybody, including these DEI hires, can appreciate the themes of 'Star Wars,' but it actually takes a 'Star Wars' fan to engage with the characters as they have been written and the lore as it has been presented.”

Stenberg also took time to blast Hollywood as a “white institution” on a recent podcast:

“I was not fully cognizant of Hollywood as a white institution ... I was aware in terms of the direct experiences I had, you know, being a little brown girl and only getting particular kinds of role submissions ... Representations within Hollywood are going to be extensions of white supremacy," she said.

Lauren is shocked that “this girl can call Hollywood white supremacist when most Hollywood institutions are actively pushing DEI and saying, ‘We need things to be queerer, blacker, more female.”’

“It seems like [Stenberg] and [Headland] are of the same mind, where 'Star Wars' needs to tell a message, and that message is not actually 'Star Wars'; it's social justice.”


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