The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg revealed that she is “not surprised” that the Disney+ series set in the Star Wars universe was canceled after one season following the “vitriol, prejudice, hatred and fateful language” that the cast received from internet trolls since the series was announced and through its cancelation earlier this month.
Stenberg had dual roles in The Acolyte, as twins Osha and Mae, who fall on opposite sides of The Force. The actress spoke out on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday night about her experience with fans, whose relentless vitriol made her feel compelled to respond to, as she says, “honor my value system.”
“I’m going to be really transparent and say that it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg told her fans of the show’s cancellation after one season. “Of course, I live in the bubble of my own reality, but for those who aren’t aware, there has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced — when it was still just a concept. No one had even seen it. That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language toward us.”
The Acolyte came from showrunner and Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland and was set in the Star Wars franchise about 100 years before The Phantom Menace, which marks the beginning of the Skywalker Saga. A critical hit with a cast that focused on diversity, it also featured South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae; British-Spanish actor Dafne Keen (of Deadpool & Wolverine); British actor Jodie Turner-Smith, who is of Jamaican descent; and The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss, who hails from Canada.
The harsh franchise fanboy response to the show’s cast profoundly impacted Stenberg, she says, as it occurred in the context of what she says is our “divisive times.” In the 10-page Stories post, the actor, who starred in Bodies Bodies Bodies and The Hate U Give, elaborated on what she went through during her time working on a Star Wars project as a Black woman.
“It brought up a lot for me, a lot of social, and political dynamics…a lot about my own value system, how I respond to that kind of hatred, how I move through the world at large,” she said. “And 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 within the context of working for Disney and working within the large edify camp within the large, massive IP that is Star Wars.”
When the show premiered, online fanboy trolls decided to take it upon themselves to review-bomb the show. Despite a strong critical response, user reviews of the series were abominable. It’s unclear if this led to the show’s declining ratings, but on Aug. 19, Lucasfilm announced that no further episodes would be produced. This was despite several major cliffhangers at the end of the first season.
In her Stories post, Stenberg takes a moment to thank everyone at LucasFilm for “being a fucking awesome team.” She also thanked Headland, who she deems “one of the best people in the world.”
She concluded her post by musing on why society has become so divided that a lauded show like The Acolyte could vanish after one season because of fans’ racism and fear.
“It’s not lost on me, the way that these events have unfolded is also due to the hyper-divisiveness of the time that we live in,” she said. “That is driven, I would say, at this point, by echo chambers of thought and algorithms that reinforce our biases. And I think that applies to everybody, but I think that in a particular sect of people, it manifests as a lot of fear for what is changing, a lot of hatred for anything that is other.”
Another actor from The Acolyte (note: spoilers ahead) spoke out about the show’s demise with Entertainment Weekly. Lee, who fans may know from the Netflix megahit Squid Game, said that he was surprised to see the show nixed, even though his character was killed off in the finale.
“As you know, my character had died already in the first season,” Lee said. “So I wouldn’t have appeared in the second season if there was one anyway. But, personally speaking, I really loved Leslye’s writing. I thought that she was a great writer and director who was very talented in the storytelling, as well as creating characters and creating meaningful structures within the story. So I was actually, personally, really looking forward to watching a season two with her at the helm.”
He added, “To hear the news, I was quite surprised personally as well.”
