Summary

• The Acolyte faces backlash from divided Star Wars fandom, with review bombing affecting ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
• Showrunner Leslye Headland has proved particularly controversial.
• Review bombing drowns out any legitimate criticisms, harming constructive .

In spite of a favorable response from critics, Leslye Headland has proved especially controversial, and there's been a vocal backlash against the Star Wars TV show from certain parts of the fandom.

This has continued with the release of The Acolyte premiere on Disney+. At time of writing, The Acolyte has an audience score of just 32 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while the show has a score of 4.1 on Metacritic. Looking at the actual reviews, there's evidence of a review bombing campaign; many appear to be AI-generated, consisting only of basic plot synopses. A surprising number of half-star reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are from brand-new s, another indicator of a review-bombing campaign.

What's Going On With The Acolyte?

The Star Wars fandom has always been a divided and divisive one, but it's become worse over the last few years, with a portion objecting to what they perceive as "wokeness" in the Disney era. This even resulted in a South Park parody of Star Wars, declaring that everything was the fault of Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy. The Acolyte is headed by a lesbian showrunner, and stars female and Asian leads, meaning it was always going to be controversial with this part of the fandom.

The campaign against The Acolyte has hardly been in good faith, with many quotes pulled out of context on social media. When star Dafne Keen discussed the ambition to produce fight choreography as good as that of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, it was seen as an insult to the prequels rather than proof of how highly they were held by the creative team. Kennedy and Headland addressed The Acolyte backlash ahead of their show's release, calling out what they perceive as racism and sexism.

It's important to note there are probably genuine criticisms amid the review bombing, drowned out by the campaign. Some critics have called out pacing and dialogue problems, and those could well pose a problem to of the audience as well, resulting in negative reviews. Ironically, the review bombing campaign means real dissatisfaction is impossible to evaluate, while those who loved The Acolyte wind up on the defensive. It's a self-defeating strategy, because it makes it easier to tune out any criticism as part of the campaign.

How Do Star Wars TV Shows Typically Fare On Rotten Tomatoes?

It's not unusual to see disagreement between Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audience scores. In fact, that's quite normal for Star Wars; but what is remarkable here, and indicative of review bombing, is the sheer scale of the difference.

As can be seen, the critics scores do tend to be more generous than the audience - with the most notable example being Obi-Wan Kenobi. But the difference with The Acolyte is simply too large to be natural; a jump from 93% critic score to 32% audience score. Incredibly, that audience score suggests The Acolyte is less popular than The Book of Boba Fett, Lucasfilm's biggest failure in the Disney+ era.

The interesting question is whether this review bombing technique works. It's used a little too frequently, and there's no verification system to prove a review actually watched the show (indeed, some of the AI-generated comments on The Acolyte may indicate bot activity of some kind). The studios are aware of this technique, and the comments from Kennedy ahead of The Acolyte's release probably mean the audience scores will be discounted when deciding whether to renew the show. All in all, review bombing is probably a waste of time - an act "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

The Acolyte episodes 1 and 2 are streaming now on Disney+.