Star Wars Spotlights The Acolyte Characters After Disney+ Series Cancellation

Osha, Mae, and Mother Aniseya cover issues of Marvel’s Star Wars comics in February.

January 9, 2025, 2:25pm

Star Wars: The Acolyte contained visions of a future that would never come to pass. The eight-episode Disney+ series introduced twin sisters Osha and Mae Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) — one a former Padawan of the Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), and the other a Sith apprentice of the masked Stranger (Manny Jacinto) — the result of a vergence in the Force capable of creating life. The daughters of the Force-wielding witch Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), killed by Sol 16 years earlier on Brendok, converged on their home planet in “The Acolyte” episode, which ended with the sisters switching places as Osha accepted a role as the Stranger’s acolyte.

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Master Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) covered up the truth with a lie told to the Senate tribunal, then went to the mind-wiped Mae to help her track down her pupil who turned to the dark side. Osha took her sister’s place at the Stranger’s side, suggesting the story was to continue in another chapter of the High Republic era.

But in August 2024, just a month after that season 2-teasing finale, Disney canceled The Acolyte after one season. Nevertheless, the show’s characters continue to appear in the ever-expanding Star Wars galaxy: fan-favorite Jedi Knight Yord and Padawan learner Jecki are starring in a new YA prequel novel after Marvel Comics featured the Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca in a one-shot comic book last summer.

And now Osha, Mae, and Mother Aniseya will feature on a series of Marvel Black History Month variant covers in February (see them below). The covers — which will adorn issues of Marvel’s Star Wars: The Legacy of Vader and Star Wars: The High Republic – Fear of the Jedi — will also spotlight Vail from the Star Wars: Outlaws video game and original Star Wars trilogy and sequel trilogy hero Lando Calrissian.

The artists are Mateus Manhanini (Marvel’s Storm), Karen S. Darboe (Bloodline: Daughter of Blade), Ernanda Souza (Black Panther), and Ken Lashley (Venom War: Wolverine).

“We were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season 2,” Disney Entertainment Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman later explained of the decision not to renew The Acolyte. “So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that.”

The series proved divisive among fans: on Rotten Tomatoes, The Acolyte‘s audience rating is just 19 percent compared to critics’ 72 percent.

“Of course I’m very sad about the show being canceled, and I’m sad about us not being able to give people invested in it more,” Stenberg shared on social media, “[but] I still just feel a lot of levity and joy around the fact that I got to experience it and that people loved it and that people were so responsive.”

STAR WARS: THE LEGACY OF VADER #1 Black History Month Variant Cover by Karen S. Darboe