There has been an odd disturbance in the Force. Since it began, Star Wars: Maul: Shadow Lord has been at the top of the Disney Plus charts. The animated series following everyone’s favorite Zabrak in the time of the Empire, has become the best reviewed Star Wars show of all time, and for good reason. Maul: Shadow Lord is beautifully animated, and the episodes have been filled with great action and tense plotting. But the truly shocking thing is that another Star Wars show has been making its way up the viewership rankings lately.

Despite lasting just one season before being canceled, The Acolyte has suddenly become a hit on Disney Plus, making it back into the top 10 two years after the last episode aired. It seems that, with the passing of time and the review bombing out of the way, people are finally discovering one of the most interesting Star Wars stories to come out in the last 49 years. Sadly, at this point, the chances of a second season are very low. At least, it would be low if they tried to do it in live-action. But there may be another way.

Set long before the movies, the first season of The Acolyte set up an important piece of the Star Wars puzzle. The series ended with the Stranger, who is one of the coolest-looking Star Wars characters around, seducing Osha to the dark side, but since then, fans have learned that the show’s creator, Leslye Headland had big plans. All of this was leading to the revelation that the Stranger, aka Qimir, was the first Knight of Ren, which is the Sith order that Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren, would later join.

Along with that, The Acolyte was digging into another element of Star Wars that has a lot of mythology behind it: witchcraft. The Nightsisters of Dathomir have been well covered in the other animated series and are playing a role in Ahsoka, but the Brendok coven that appeared in The Acolyte appeared to be a different type of Force magic user. Sadly, all of this has fallen away with the show getting axed so early on.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord Review: Star Wars’ Crime-Thriller Gives Iconic Prequel Villain A Worthy, Albeit Flawed, Story ](/star-wars-maul-shadow-lord-review/)

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord gives its best villain a long-awaited focus, and its beauty, tone, and characters cannot be marred by a few drawbacks.

But now that audiences are finding it and, for the most part, realizing that The Acolyte is good, actually, Lucasfilm and Disney have the opportunity to fix their mistake and allow Headland finish what she started. Of course, with the costs, getting another live-action series started is unlikely. But there’s no reason The Acolyte can’t be continued as an animated series.

To look at the early episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars compared to Maul: Shadow Lord is like looking at a child’s drawing next to the Mona Lisa. This isn’t meant to disrespect the countless talented people who worked on Clone Wars; they did what they could with the tools they had available at the time. But CG animation has come a long way in the last two decades, and it would be foolish not to take advantage of what Lucasfilm’s animators can pull off now. Not only that, but with the live action shows having rumored budgets in the hundreds of millions compared to the far more reasonable costs of animation, it makes it far easier for these shows to be considered successes.

Maul: Shadow Lord proves that the animation can capture the same kind of mood that The Acolyte was going for. And it isn’t like the Star Wars animated shows have ever been afraid to get grim; The Clone Wars does a better job of showing Anakin’s decent than the movies do, and both Rebels and Bad Batch were filled with some very dark moments. And Maul: Shadow Lord has been one of the more morally complex stories Star Wars has done. It’s not reaching Andor levels of “mature,” but it isn’t afraid to get deep when needed.

And, clearly, Maul: Shadow Lord is proving to be popular. If Disney Plus’ Top 10 Series list is to be believed, it is getting more views than Daredevil: Born Again (at least in the US). This shows that people are willing to watch animated Star Wars. Heck, it proves that they really like it. It seems, at least from the outside, that a return to animated shows may be the best move for Star Wars moving forward, and that The Acolyte would be a great way to test it out further.

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Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal

The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order

Character(s)

Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Rey Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor, Reva (The Third Sister), The Fifth Brother, The Seventh Sister, The Eighth Brother, Yoda, Din Djarin, Grogu, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren

Star Wars is a multimedia franchise that started in 1977 by creator George Lucas. After the release of Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope (originally just titled Star Wars), the franchise quickly exploded, spawning multiple sequels, prequels, TV shows, video games, comics, and much more. After Disney acquired the rights to the franchise, they quickly expanded the universe on Disney+, starting with The Mandalorian.