“Acolyte” showrunner Leslye Headland has urged fans to praise the show through online comments and word of mouth, but to ignore the low ratings the show has received.
Headland and her bubbly ladies have been widely criticized for their distressingly woke contributions to the “Star Wars” universe, which include a scene suggesting that lesbian witches can use the Force to conceive babies without a man involved.
The show will introduce a number of new prominent female characters, with Headland’s wife also appearing in the series.
The backlash against the show’s overly female-centric storylines prompted Amandla Stenberg, a self-identified non-binary actress and star of the show, to release a diss track. Stenberg’s poorly written rap song spoke about how the actress has been oppressed and carries the generational trauma that stems from slavery.
Headland has, to her credit, responded much better to criticism, perhaps because she has no online presence.
“I would say that people don’t want me to exist as a gay woman.”
However, Headland is calling on fans to help get “Acolyte” a second season by offering all the “online support and love” they can.
“It’s a little difficult because of how the internet works, but if you enjoy the show and would like to see more stories, any support you can give the show on any social media platform would be greatly appreciated,” she said.
Headland went so far as to say that even if viewers didn’t really like the show, they should support the actors if they enjoyed their performances.
“Send love to the performers as well. … Even if you were like, ‘Oh, I don’t care’ on the show, if you enjoyed their performance, get on their social media and let them know you love them, you’re rooting for them, and that their performance was amazing.”
Disney Plus producers say word of mouth is the most effective way to get viewers to watch the show. [their] “I would encourage my friends to watch the show,” she says, ignoring the bad reviews she’s received online.
“A lot of my work is word of mouth. We were talking about review bombing, but I tell people not to worry about the IMDb score. If you like it, tell everyone. This seems like such a basic thing, but what’s interesting is that these days, if you like a show, you almost never go online and say, ‘I loved this show!'” she said. Collider.
This show has a rating of 3.9/10 IMDb.
She added that fans should tell others that they “binge-watched the show” over dinner and that they “had fun,” further urging fans to basically do the right thing and “be grateful.”
“So if you loved the show, please turn around and be grateful. … By the way, I’m not online but I know this is already happening.”
Headland also suggested that the criticism of the series had something to do with her personally.
“People don’t want me to exist as a gay woman, as a woman working in this particular space, in this wild sandbox,” the showrunner said.
Headland’s reasoning is certainly “on message” for Disney, which has a habit of trivializing fan complaints as sexism.
“I think Leslie struggled a little bit with that, and I think a lot of women coming into Star Wars struggle even more. Because the fanbase is so male-dominated, they can get attacked quite personally,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in May 2024.
The oft-parodied executive added that he categorically rejects “those who engage in bigotry, racism and hate speech.”
While Headland praised the crew’s dedication, she remains plagued by a vague sense of persecution.
“There were a lot of people who believed in me, but deep down I felt like, ‘I’m not being accepted for who I am because of what I believe and my desire to wield power without answering to a bunch of people.'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_F-DuG63HI
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