Clarisa Kless
Actress Amandla Stenberg who stars on the latest Star Wars spin-off “The Acolyte,” has been receiving on- line hate for her role as well as the show.
The eight episode series premiered on June 4, on Disney+. It started off with a good start, as it was the biggest series premiere on the platform this year, ranking in 4.8 million views on its first day, according to Deadline. In August, the platform announced their decision to cancel the series. The critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is 78%, but the user’s score is just 18%. Star Wars fans have been stating their unfavorable opinions and criticizing the acting and the script.
When the news that the show was over broke out, some users on TikTok commented things such as, “Never fallen asleep in any Star Wars show... until the Acolyte arrived,” and “Who even liked Acolyte?” However, there were some who enjoyed it, with one person writing, “I definitely enjoyed Acolyte. I did not feel like it was ‘woke’ at all. Loved the story line that the Jedi was not all good.”
Things took a turn when Stenberg began receiving more personal hate. Some called the show “woke” for casting a black LGBTQ actress as the lead. Stenberg, who also played Rue in the 2012 film “The Hunger Games”, said she was not surprised by “The Acolyte’s” cancellation, after all the backlash she got online. On an Instagram story, Stenberg, 25, made a statement saying it was “not a huge shock for me.” And “There has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced, a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us.” Despite the negative feelings, she also said that “It has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe". She also gave a shout-out to her supporters, wanting to let them know, “that you were deeply loved and appreciated, and it made this job all the worthwhile for me.”
Other actors voiced their support of Stenberg on social media. Ahmed Best, who is best known for his role as Jar Jar Binks wrote on Instagram a supporting message. In addition, John Boyega, who played another Star Wars character Finn posted a gif of Hans Solo saluting on her X post. Boyega was also a victim of racist backlash.
Hopefully, Stenberg can heal and come back from this drama and lands more successful roles in the future. She took the bad news well. She accepted that the show had bitten the dust and was grateful for the time it got. And she said that after people were mean to her.
It is unfortunate that she knew what the outcome would be. It is silly and racist of those people who are bashing the show and a character because she is black and LGBT. Everyone is free to dislike something and have an opinion. Not liking something because you find it boring and do not like the acting is one thing. But they should not bring her race into this. The “fans” of Star Wars are really trying to justify their racism by saying they are trying to protect the franchise.
I have not watched “The Acolyte,” so I do not have an opinion on whether it is bad or not. I think woke is a good thing because it means awareness of social inequalities, and here they are acknowledging that people of color do not get as many opportunities in Hollywood. I do not see why that is a negative because here it is refreshing. But this is not the first time something like this has happened, and it sadly will not be the last
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