Amandla Stenberg said that “The Acolyte” being canceled after one season was “not a huge shock.” In a series of videos posted to her Instagram account Wednesday, the lead of the Star Wars series further denounced the racist and homophobic hate being spewed at her show.
“There has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced, when it was still just a concept and no one had even seen it,” the Black queer actress said. “That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us.”
In an interview ahead of the prequel series’ release, Stenberg and showrunner Leslye Headland joked about “The Acolyte” being named the “gayest Star Wars” by fans. Hedland told TheWrap she was “into it.”
Some fans online were not.
Despite positive reviews from critics, the Disney+ series was review-bombed by angry fans on Rotten Tomatoes. Though the critical score on the Tomatometer sits in the 80+ percent range, the audience review score currently sits at 18%. This made “The Acolyte” the lowest rated Star Wars property, even lower than the universally dismissed “Star Wars Holiday Special.”
“This really affected me when I first got the job. Because it’s just not something — even though I anticipated it happening — it’s not something you can fully understand what it feels like until it’s happening to you,” she said on her Instagram story Wednesday.
Stenberg has been vocal about the racist comments and hate she has received since the show’s premiere. In response to the “intolerable racism” she received in her DMs, she dropped a song and music video on Juneteenth. “The Hate U Give” star has long been an advocate for justice for Black people and even referenced her 2018 film about racist police violence in the song.
“It just became inarguable for me, at a certain point, that in order to continue to be myself, I would have to honor my value system by being vocal even in the context of working for Disney … and working within the large, massive IP that is Star Wars,” she said Wednesday.
“The Acolyte” aired its season finale in July. Disney+ announced that the series would be coming to an end in August. In the series, Stenberg played separated twins Osha and Mae, born to a pair of “lesbian space witches.” Though the Season 1 finale concluded with a cliffhanger and lingering plotlines, the divided reception among fans and declining viewership numbers did not bode well for a second season.
“It has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe,” Stenberg, an avid fantasy nerd herself, said.
“I just want to let those people know out there who supported us in that way, and supported us vocally — despite and in the face of all of the vitriol that we received and the kind of the targeted attack, I would say, we received by the alt-right — just that you were deeply loved and appreciated. And it made this job all the worthwhile for me.”
Watch the video in full here.
— Peter Sciretta (@PeterSciretta) August 28, 2024