The Acolyte is currently topping Rotten Tomatoes’ charts for the most popular streaming shows. Created by Leslye Headland, The Acolyte has proved to be one of the most controversial Star Wars stories of all time. The Acolyte was even subjected to a review-bombing campaign on sites like Rotten Tomatoes; at one point, the show’s audience score dropped as low as 13 percent as a result of an improbable 25,000+ reviews. Episodes routinely had negative scores before they’d even released.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, The Acolyte currently tops its most popular streaming shows. Incredibly, that places the Disney+ Star Wars TV show ahead of the likes of The Boys, The Bear, and even House of the Dragon. It’s interesting to note this continued interest coincides both with the end of the review-bombing campaign and a gradual but marked improvement in the audience score; it currently sits at 17 percent. While that doesn’t exactly sound good, it’s impressive given the sheer number of initially negative reviews that must be being compensated for.

Fans Are Pushing For The Acolyte To Be Renewed

The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland has insisted she has no idea whether the show will be renewed; she’s used to working with the binge model rather than weekly releases, and doesn’t really know how the metrics should look. Still, she’s encouraged viewers to push for The Acolyte season 2 on social media, and fans seem to have taken her words to heart. At time of writing, #RenewTheAcolyte is trending on Twitter.

Headland’s familiarity with the binge model may well be a factor in the show’s improved ratings. It’s likely many viewers have waited until The Acolyte is over, and are only now checking it out; if so, their experience could potentially be a better one given Headland’s past work. There’s been some discussion online suggesting viewers feel the weekly release model didn’t work in the show’s favor, particularly given the short run-times, so these newer viewers (and voters) may well be more indicative of The Acolyte‘s quality.

The Acolyte was far from faultless, but it is certainly far better than that audience score suggests. It’s pleasing to see evidence of continued interest in the Star Wars Disney+ TV show, which was something of a labor of love for Headland, a lifelong fan of the franchise who’s getting to live the dream. There are still many story threads left up in the air after the end of The Acolyte, and it’s to be hoped these won’t be left hanging.