“Can’t take review scores seriously anymore”: The Acolyte Getting ‘Review Bombed’ Gets Exposed as 2008 Movie Gets Caught in Hate Misfire

Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte is the newest addition to the Star Wars franchise, prior to the series’ release it had created a massive buzz among the fans because of the trailer and the positive early reviews from the critics of the show. The show looked promising because some audiences loved the prequel series for its magnetic and compelling storyline, with a star-studded cast.

The poster of The Acolyte. Credits: Lucasfilm Ltd

However, it looks like the show has fallen victim to the review bombing campaign, as the show saw a surge in 1-star reviews. Fans are blinded by rage for the show because projects with similar names are caught in the misfire, lowering their scores on Rotten Tomatoes. The ardent fans of the sci-fi franchise have had enough as they point out how review bombing has made a joke out of a film’s score.

The Acolyte Is The Newest Victim Of The Review Bombing Campaign

Taking place before George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte was meant to be a savior for the Star Wars franchise. When the trailer for the series was dropped, a ton of fans believed that this might be everything that Lucasfilm had been looking for so long. This was proven true when the show met with overwhelmingly positive critical reviews.

Dafne Keen in The Acolyte. Credits: Lucasfilm Ltd.

However, upon release, the show had perplexingly poor ratings from the fans as the show had an 16% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while the critics’ score was 84%. Though it felt perplexing, recent occurrences have showcased that the show has met with backlash from the fans.

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This issue was pointed out by a fan (@JordanMaison) on X, they pointed out that the haters have review-bombed Acolytes, a 2008 film. They mentioned these so-called are upset with the show as it had earlier been complained about for being too woke and different from Lucas’ Star Wars films.

A still from Acolytes (2008). Credits: IMDb

The real fans of the show were not thrilled to see the show getting unwanted backlash, especially the projects with a similar name. They tweeted on X, criticizing the misguiding campaign.

Although Kathleen Kennedy expected that their latest venture would be a threat to criticism getting bombed with negative reviews to such an extent was overwhelming was something that she would have never seen coming.

Kathleen Kennedy Opens Up About The Dangers of Working With Giant Franchises

Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte was already getting criticized by the fans for being too woke and how the theme of her show is similar to that of Geoge Lucas’ original films.

Lee Jung-jae in The Acolyte. Credits: Lucasfilm Ltd.

While sitting with The Associated Press, Headland opened up about her idea of having a political undertone that opposed fans’ requests. She said,

I actually brought it to them. I said, yeah, I had a general with Rayne Roberts, she is one of the co-producers of the show, she said, ‘If you had the chance to work in Star Wars what would you write about?’ I said, ‘I’d write about the Sith and I would love to take a story about the bad guys and spin it into the underdog versus the institution as well as making it into a family drama.’ Hopefully, we can achieve that.

Since the notion opposed the fans’ requests, the audience didn’t take it on a good note and a lot of them have criticized the showrunner on social media.

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Kathleen Kennedy understands the problem of working with a giant franchise like Star Wars and told The New York Times about the struggle. She said,

Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying. I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.

Nevertheless, The Acolyte is a good watch as it has a sense of mystery to it with a ruthless killer on the loose, who is either attacking or killing Jedis. With the show being a prequel, the problem of overlooking canonical events in the show is out of the question.

Hence, it is a humble request to the ‘critics’ to not review bomb The Acolyte and share what they really feel about the project, after they have watched it.

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The Acolyte can be streamed on Disney+.