'Star Wars' spinoff pushing LGBT ideology panned by viewers, loved by critics
A new spinoff of “Star Wars” widely characterized as “woke” has received negative reactions from viewers while critics have taken a liking to it.
“Star Wars: The Acolyte” premiered earlier this month. Available for viewing on the streaming service Disney+, a summary of the series on the Internet Movie Database explains that the plot focuses on how “an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past.”
According to Rotten Tomatoes, an aggregator that compiles reviews for movies based on the views of both professional critics and the public as a whole, “Star Wars: The Acolyte” has a score of 84% on the Tomatometer. This indicates a warm reception among critics. Of the 99 who have weighed in so far, 79 have given it a “fresh” rating, signaling a positive review, while 20 have awarded it a rating of “rotten” to express disgust with the series. “The Acolyte” has an average score of 6.8 out of 10 among critics.
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On the other hand, the average audience score of 15% means that less than one in six Rotten Tomatoes users rated the program 3.5 stars out of 5. The negative reviews from the public at large come as the series has received national attention for its embrace of LGBT ideology and other characteristics deemed as “woke.”
A review of the first few episodes of “The Acolyte” published on YouTube by the account Geeks + Gamers the day the series premiered on Disney+ warned that the third episode of the “Star Wars” spinoff attempts to “completely redefine what ‘The Force’ is” and noted that “two [lesbian witch] mothers conceive twins” as part of the plot line. The video discussion about the new series also featured one “Star Wars” fan telling another to “get ready for pronouns in Star Wars.”
An article published on the website Bounding into Comics last Wednesday, the day after the controversial third episode premiered, elaborated on its “absolutely massive, ostensibly identity politics-motivated change to one of the franchise’s most pivotal pieces of original, pre-Disney lore.” The website noted that “the power to create life via the direct manipulation of the Force” was viewed as “a near-impossible feat, even for the most storied of its users” in the “Star Wars” universe.
However, the understanding of “The Force” changed after the third episode of “The Acolyte” first aired as it featured two witches using the Force to bring to life two embryos that would become series protagonists Mae and Osha.
Ahead of the series premiere, “The Acolyte” creator Leslye Headland revealed in an interview that the goal behind the “Star Wars” spinoff was to “make something like this that is, you know, for lack of a better term, Disney, meaning something that like my parents would have allowed me to see when I was younger as a queer person, that I would have been able to understand as a queer person.” Headland insisted that had such a program existed in her youth, she “would have had a completely different life.”
“When I was developing this original idea to pitch to [production company Lucasfilm’s] Kathleen [Kennedy], I thought … you know it can’t just be that, you know, when you’re pitching ‘Star Wars’ you have to pull from what you know [‘Star Wars’ creator] George [Lucas] was also interested in,” she recalled. Headland ultimately created her “own new characters” who lived during the “High Republic” or “the end of the High Republic into prequels” that preceded the “Skywalker saga” that is at the center of the “Star Wars” franchise.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
