Amandla Stenberg Says ‘The Acolyte’ Being Canceled Was ‘Not a Huge Shock’ After ‘Rampage of Vitriol’ From Toxic ‘Star Wars’ Fans

variety.com:

J. Kim Murphy Amandla Stenberg isn’t too surprised that “The Acolyte” has come to an end on Disney+. The lead of the “Star Wars” series shared a statement on her Instagram story Wednesday reflecting on the “rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol” that they faced after being cast. “I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg begins in the video. “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.” Though “The Acolyte” generally drew praise from critics, the series was review-bombed, meaning that 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 an extreme backlash from online fans upon its release. “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,” they added.