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Deadline just released an exclusive article about the cancellation of The Acolyte. With Deadline being a reputable Hollywood trade magazine with actual industry sources there is zero doubt about the veracity of their report. The least watched live action Star Wars Series on Disney+ ever that cost 180 million to make and which also had the lowest watched Marvel or Star Wars series/season finale on Disney+ ever (less viewers than Ms Marvel even) will not get a second season. As reported in my Nielsen article from a few days ago The Acolyte series finale had not even one quarter of the audience of The Mandalorian season 2 finale and performed worse than the Ms Marvel series finale even, which is a new absolute low point. An overwhelming number of fans ignored the series and refused to watch it. News of the cancellation breaks mere days after Nielsen reported their series finale numbers for The Acolyte, of course internally Disney knew about the viewership weeks ago.
And with that Leslye Headland and The Acolyte will both become obscure footnotes in Star Wars history. The woman who tried to destroy the Jedi and wanted people to root for psychopathic murderers she identified with and considered her “avatar” will never work for Lucasfilm again. And quite frankly – the best Disney could do is to give The Acolyte the Willow treatment and to erase the show from existence or at least to officially label it non canon.
And with that I think we will finally never have to talk about The Acolyte again. Let’s forget about it all. And to the twelve people who wanted a season 2: welcome to the real world!
One final question remains: why does the woman who greenlit both Willow and The Acolyte on Disney+ (two of the worst flops on Disney+) and is reponsible for the massive box office disaster that is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny still have a job?
Read the exclusive Deadline article here!
Dead!
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Lo and behold, after weeks of absence The Acolyte did manage to enter the Nielsen Streaming Charts for original shows with its last episode. The numbers are however nothing Lucasfilm can be happy about. In fact, the numbers are abysmal. Click through for all the details!
The series is as dead as Sol
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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.
Yesterday’s new reveals are now available for pre-order, as well as the previously revealed The Black Series Dedra Meero and Cassian Andor. Click below for pre-order pages:
- The Black Series K-2SO (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- The Black Series Dedra Meero (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- The Black Series Cassian Andor (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- The Black Series Darth Maul (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- TVC K-2SO (Kay-Tuesso) (Entertainment Earth • Amazon • GameStop)
Click here for all The Black Series listings on Amazon
Case Assortments (Entertainment Earth):
- The Black Series Wave 20 (Includes Dedra Meero, Cassian Andor, K-2SO, and Darth Maul)
- The Vintage Collection Wave 20 (Includes K-2SO (Kay-Tuesso))
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K-2SO will be getting a refresh in both The Black Series and The Vintage Collection lines. Check out the full reveal over at Gizmodo! No word yet if this will be a VC170 refresh of K-2SO or a new number in the line. The image is the same so hopefully this will be a VC170 refresh.
Tags: Andor (Disney+ Series), K-2SO, The Black Series [Phase IV], The Vintage Collection
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The latest The Black Series announcement features another return to The Phantom Menace. Head to laugingplace.com for more images and info for Darth Maul (TPM05). Pre-orders start tomorrow at 1 PM Eastern.
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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.
Disney Store will have all of their D23 exclusives and some other new releases starting today around 11 AM Eastern. You’ll also be able to get this year’s D23 exclusive droid, R6-D23. Many of these items are limited, so if you are on the hunt start stalking the site early just in case they have a virtual queue. Click here to browse the complete selection. Here are some of the Star Wars items available:
- Star Tours StarSpeeder 3000 Vehicle Play Set (3.75″ scale)
- R6-D23
- The Clone Wars LIGHTSABER Hilt Set
- Kylo Ren Reforged Helmet
- RX-24 Talking Action Figure
- Pit Droid Interactive Action Figure
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The D23 studio showcase is happening right now. If there will be any news about upcoming Star Wars movies or shows this is the panel we will get them. Will there be trailers? Will there be announcements for new shows? Will an Acolyte season 2 be announced? I will try to keep you up to date! As of now all we got is a sizzle reel that had about 2 seconds of brand new footage from Andor season 2! And Cassian looks all smart and is either attending one of Mon Mothma’s lavish parties or he’s about to infiltrate a casino. Either way, you have never seen Cassian like this! I do hope Disney will at least give a release date for Andor season 2 that is a bit more specific than “2025”. Click through for more!
Inside this article you will find the Skeleton Crew trailer! A first official poster for the show, some info on Andor season 2 and The Mandalorian & Grogu movie (Din gets a new Razor Crest)!
UPDATE: Andor footage was finally uploaded by someone! Watch it while you can (just click here)!!! Disney is known for taking down these things very quickly! This is mostly a behind the scenes look with Gilroy and some actors talking about the new season. But there’s also some more actual footage towards the end. You see both Krennic and K-2SO in the trailer!
Watch the full sizzle reel on CineGeek’s X account!
Andor season 2 – AI enhanced screenshot of a mobile phone video of the sizzle reel
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If you pre-ordered the (sold out) Hasbro Pulse exclusive The Vintage Collection Jabba the Hutt Set, watch for shipping notices. This is shipping slightly earlier than expected.
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I’ll make it super quick. The Acolyte is not on the top 10 Nielsen Streaming charts, not in the overall top 10, not in the original series top 10, it’s nowhere to be found. In fact, a brand new Star Wars series with an all new episode is now even outperformed by a show which released its currently most recent episode two years ago. A job well done, Leslye Headland and Kathleen Kennedy! You really turned a once successful phenomenon on Disney+ into a bad joke no one is watching. This is with episode 7, the second flashback episode, added. Click through for a short discussion!
In search of the modern audience
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I won’t bore you with all the financial details in this article about Disney’s quarterly earnings, I will focus mostly on everyone’s favorite streaming service: Disney+. Overall Disney beat expectations, total segment operating income increased 19% to now $4.225 billion (Disney’s quarterly income is basically what Hasbro’s total annual gross revenue is). Theme parks are somewhat slowing down because of inflation, classic linear tv is still on the decline. But let’s take a look at Disney+! So click through for more!
Bob Iger’s favorite pastime
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Hasbro Pulse premium members can order the SDCC exclusive The Black Series Darth Maul & Sith Speeder right now, and at 2 PM Eastern it will be available for everyone else. Click here for the product page.
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The Lando series is officially dead. If anyone remembers: this series was originally announced in 2020. Alongside other projects like “Rogue Squadron” (giggle), “Rangers of the New Republic” (snort) or “Droids” (huh?!?).
Deadline quotes series director / showrunner Justin Simien who told them the project is not moving forward at Lucasfilm.
Simien said this to Deadline:
“It was pretty developed. There was a Bible. There was concept art. There were scripts. But it just wasn’t meant to be.”
No particular reason was given for the cancellation of the project. Last year it was still said that Glover and his co-writer want to turn the series into a movie instead. No word about that here anymore. And let’s be honest: a Lando movie would tank hard. He’s a supporting character who works in the greater context of a Star Wars movie, but few would be eager to watch his solo adventures. It’s certainly for the best we will not get a Lando solo project.
And Kathleen Kennedy can add one more failed/cancelled project to her impressive list of things she announced which then never happened.
Now all we really wait for is Deadline reporting that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is livid that sexist and misogynist Disney dared to cancel her Rey movie and how this is an outrage.
If only Lucasfilm had had this kind of foresight they show with the Lando series for The Acolyte…
Leave all the usual funny remarks in the comments section if you feel like it. Maybe someone can post an updated list of Kathleen Kennedy’s Star Wars projects that never materialized.
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I’ll make it quick. Because at this point it really is beating a dead horse. The Acolyte with episode 6 (the Qimir bathing episode) failed to enter the Nielsen charts. Which comes as no surprise, since the show dropped out of the charts after its third episode (week 2). This corroborates Luminate’s all new streaming charts where The Acolyte also dropped out.
House of the Dragon meanwhile has 1,296 million minutes and Amazon’s The Boys is listed with 1,125 million minutes as the #2 original series. Disney has only one real highlight, but it’s not even a Disney+ show, the FX series (for Hulu) The Bear is #1 on the original shows charts (all episodes were released on the same day), this is the second success story for FX/Hulu this year after Shogun. Disney+ proper only has three entries, the usual suspects: Bluey (again, not even a Disney IP), Moana and because of the successful sequel also Inside Out.
It will be interesting to see what subscriber numbers Disney will report for its streaming service in the upcoming earnings report next week.
Dead as a doornail
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D23 is next weekend and one of the exclusives on hand will be an all-new Starspeeder 3000. Packaged with R2-D2 and RX-24, this will set attendees back $300. Anything left after the show will be available online. You can check out the full schedule of events right here.
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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.
Disney Store has the latest Halloween-themed Droid Factory droid available to order. Click here for the product page for R5-Z0MB.
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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.
Amazon has several new pre-orders for Micro Galaxy Squadron Series 6. Click below for the product pages:
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We had some leaked images before, but about 4 months before Skeleton Crew will come to Disney+ Lucasfilm is slowly gearing up its marketing efforts for the next Star Wars series. They released a couple of official photos from the show and some basic info. Skeleton Crew was ready for release in 2023 but was delayed because of Bob Iger’s new content strategy, filming ended in January 2023, this has been sitting in the vault for some time already. Click through for the images!
This is an old leaked set photo… inside the article you see it after post!
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With the bevy of recent announcements we thought this was a good time for a big update to The Vintage Collection Card Collecting Resource Guide! We’ve added the latest information released over the past week to our ever-expanding resource guide for The Vintage Collection card collectors. We’ve also added all of the latest releases and updates to our The Vintage Collection Reissue Guide as well.
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Hasbro closed out their time at San Diego Comic Con with the official date for Pulse Con 2024. They will kick off their fifth year of Pulse Con on Friday, September 13th.
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Last Thursday Hasbro presented their Q2 numbers. Chris Cocks is full of praise of course. Even though consumer products declined by another 20% and as far as partner brands are concerned…. abysmal performance. Click through for a short summary and overview!
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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.
Pre-orders are now live for most of yesterday’s Hasbro San Diego Comic Com reveals. Click below for pre-order pages:
The Vintage Collection
- Ahsoka Tano (Peridea) (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Cobb Vanth (Mandalorian Armor) (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Grand Admiral Thrawn (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Jetpack Trooper (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Blurrg & The Mandalorian (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- The Armorer’s Forge (Hasbro Pulse)
The Black Series
- Ahsoka Tano (Peridea) (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Bazil (Jedi Order Tracker) (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- IG-12 and Grogu (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Imperial Armored Commando (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
Note: The Black Series Dedra Meero and Cassian Andor will be available at a later date
Case Assortments:
- The Vintage Collection Wave 20 (Includes Grand Admiral Thrawn, Ahsoka Tano (Peridea), Jetpack Trooper, The Mandalorian (Imperial Base), and Bo-Katan Kryze (Plazir-15) – via Entertainment Earth
- The Black Series Wave 20 (Includes Ahsoka Tano (Peridea) and Imperial Armored Commando) – via Entertainment Earth
- The Black Series Wave TBD (Includes Bazil (Jedi Order Tracker and Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh) – via Entertainment Earth
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Let’s make it quick. The Acolyte failed to enter the Nielsen charts in week 4, just like last week. This means the big lightsaber battle episode and Qimir reveal interested very, very few people. I talked about it last week what this means for Star Wars and how embarrassing it really is for a once successful and popular franchise. But it all adds up, GI Joe HasLabs utterly wipe the floor with current Star Wars offerings (almost 11k backers now), and now the streaming shows cannot even remotely compete anymore with other genre shows like House of the Dragon (1,047 million minutes) or The Boys (1,179 million minutes). A job well done, Ms Headland and Ms Kennedy!
No one cares
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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.
Once again, grab (most) of your pre-orders early on Amazon for The Black Series and The Vintage Collection. Full pre-order list will go up at 5 PM Eastern. A few items are currently listed as unavailable, but most can still be pre-ordered.
Click here to shop early on Amazon.
Tags: Pre-Orders, San Diego Comic Con, SDCC, The Black Series [Phase IV], The Vintage Collection
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Here’s the breakdown of what was revealed today during Hasbro’s San Diego Comic Con livestream panel, (re)introducing deluxe card backs replacing the boxed deluxe figures. Pre-orders kick off tomorrow (July 27) at 5 PM Eastern.
The Vintage Collection
- Grand Admiral Thrawn (VC337) – Mainline release
- Ahsoka Tano (Peridea) (VC338) – Mainline release
- Cob Vanth (Mandalorian Armor) (VC343) – Mainline release
—New Deluxe card back - Blurrg & The Mandalorian (VC335) – Fan Channel & Amazon
- The Armorer’s Forge with The Armorer (VC331) – Pulse/Disney Store
- Jetpack Trooper (VCC336) – Mainline release
TVC Pipeline Reveals
- Jedi Master Indara
- Yord Fandar
- Dedra Meero
- Obi-Wan Kenobi [Kenobi]
- Phase I Clone Trooper Lieutenant
- Mandalorian Super Commando (Maul Armor)
- Baylan Skoll
- Shin Hati
Click through for pictures and additional details
Tags: Fanstream, Hasbro Pulse, livestream, San Diego Comic Con, SDCC, The Vintage Collection
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Well….
The following Black Series figures were revealed at SDCC by Hasbro:
- Vernestra Rwoh
- Bazil (sorry, I can hardly contain myself)
- Cassian Andor (all new figure, all newly tooled)
- Dedra Meero
- Ahsoka Tano (Peridea)
- Imperial Armored Commando (The Mandalorian)
- IG-12 and Grogu (The Mandalorian) – DELUXE set
All items are mainline releases. The Acolyte figures will be released in spring 2025, the other figures will come later this year in the fall. Andor figures will get their pre-order dates later. Everything else will be available for pre-order on Saturday at 5 pm ET.
Maybe it’s time to become a GI Joe Collector.
Click through for the update with additional info and photos!
Ollie’s Exclusive
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Toy Reviews
