Amandla Stenberg has remained silent on the cancellation of The Acolyteafter her fans, in her opinion, triggered a “rampage of vitriol.”
After Lucasfilm had previously decided not to make a second season of the star Wars The actress explained why the show’s abrupt cancellation was “not a huge shock” to her when it was announced this month.
“There are many people out there that I want to thank and show my appreciation, love and support to. That is why I am here to talk about that, namely that our star Wars “The show has been canceled,” Stenberg said in her Instagram story on Wednesday.
“And I will be very frank in saying that it’s not a huge shock to me,” she added. “Obviously, I live in my own bubble of reality, but for those who don’t know, since the show was announced, when it was just a concept and no one had seen it yet, there has been a rampage of vitriol that we’ve faced.”
Stenberg described the attacks as “hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, biased hatred and hateful language” directed at the cast, which also includes Lee Jung-jae, Charlie Barnett, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen and Rebecca Henderson.
Charlie Barnett and Lee Jung-jae in Lucasfilms The Acolyte. (Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“And that really affected me when I got the job,” Stenberg continued. “Even though I expected it, you can’t really imagine the feeling until it happens to you.”
“However, I feel like I processed those feelings in a number of ways, including by talking about it myself. For me, it just became a situation where I had no choice but to honor my sense of ethics, my belief system, my value system while I was in this unique position,” she explained.
The actress previously released the single “Discourse” on June 19 of this year in response to the “unbearable racism” she experienced.
Stenberg said on Wednesday that she had to “respect my value system by speaking out, even in the context of her work for Disney and within the large, massive intellectual property that star Wars.”
“On that topic, all I have to say is that it was an incredible honor and a dream for me to be in that universe,” Stenberg added in part. “While I’m obviously very sad that the show got canceled, and it’s sad that we can’t give more to the people who cared about it, I still feel a lot of lightness and joy that I got to experience it and that people loved it and were so responsive.”
The Acolyte is a mystery thriller set in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan (Stenberg) meets with her Jedi Master (Jung-jae) to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they face are more sinister than expected.
Jung-jae said he was “personally quite surprised” about the show’s cancellation and praised the script by series creator Leslye Headland.
“I thought she was a great writer and director who was very talented at telling stories, creating characters and creating meaningful structures within the story,” he said. Weekly entertainment“So personally, I was really looking forward to seeing a second season with her at the helm.”
