Amandla Stenberg, who rose to prominence on the now-canceled Disney+ show The Acolyte, said vitriolic and hateful Star Wars fans were responsible for the show’s demise.
Stenberg, who has previously been critical of the Star Wars fanbase for their vocal distaste of The Acolyte, said on her Instagram story that the cast faced a rampage from fueled by “hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol.”
“I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg said. “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. That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us.”
Despite strong critical reviews, The Acolyte continued to underperform in viewership as the weeks pressed on, which ultimately pushed Disney into canceling the show. It currently holds a 4.1 rating on IMDB based on 119,000 ratings along with an 18% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Supporters of the show have charged that it fell victim to a coordinated review-bombing campaign.
“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,” Stenberg said. “However, I feel like I’ve kind of moved through those feelings in various ways, including being vocal about it myself. … 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.”
“It has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe,” Stenberg added. “Of course, I’m very sad about the show being canceled. … 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.”
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