Amandla Stenberg isn’t exactly surprised that “The Acolyte” has been pulled from Disney+. The “Star Wars” series lead actress shared a statement on her Instagram Story Wednesday, reflecting on “the wave of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol” she faced after being cast.
“I’m going to be transparent and say that this isn’t a huge shock to me,” Stenberg begins in the video. “We’ve been dealing with a wave of vitriol since the show was announced, when it was still a concept and no one had seen it. That’s when we started to experience a wave of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language directed at us.”
While “The Acolyte” has generally received critical acclaim, the series has been criticized, meaning a group of fans formed a digital protest and posted negative reviews en masse. This practice often impacts productions that include actors of color and LGBTQ characters. The 2017 “Star Wars” film “The Last Jedi” also faced a backlash from fans online upon its release.
“It really hit me when I got the job. It’s not something I thought it would happen, even though I expected it to happen. You can’t really understand what you’re feeling until it happens to you,” Stenberg said. “However, I feel like I’ve worked through those feelings in a variety of ways, including expressing them myself. (…) It became clear to me at a certain point that in order to continue to be myself, I had to honor my value system by expressing myself, even in the context of my work at Disney.”
“It’s been an incredible honor and dream come true for me to be in this universe,” they added. “Of course, I’m very sad that the show has been canceled. … I just want to let those people who have supported us in that way and who have vocally supported us — despite and in the face of all the vitriol that we’ve received and the kind of targeted attack, I would say, that we’ve received from the alt-right — know that they are deeply loved and appreciated. And that’s made this work all the more worthwhile for me.”
The Acolyte season 1 finale aired in July. The Disney+ series was set to end in August, as Lucasfilm opted not to continue with further episodes of the prequel series that followed the rise of the Sith, set approximately 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In the series, Stenberg played estranged twins Osha and Mae. Although the season 1 finale ended with a cliffhanger and lingering plot holes, the mixed reception among fans and declining viewership did not seem to imply that a second season was a guaranteed prospect.
