There are few “fans” that are more divided nowadays than Star Wars fans. As someone who’s in the camp of “don’t like it, don’t watch it,” I’ve not touched a galaxy far, far away for quite some time, but it seems there are plenty of people still attached enough to make a fuss when things aren’t to their liking.
Recently, the fans who’ve been against the vast majority of what Disney has been putting out with the Star Wars IP rejoiced when it was revealed The Acolyte won’t be coming back for a second season. Low viewership was the reason cited by Disney, but the show’s star Amandla Stenberg appears to have been expecting such an outcome.
In a video posted to her Instagram account (uploaded to X/Twitter by Culture Crave), Stenberg says she wasn’t shocked by the cancellation, and believes a large part of it was to do with fans. “There has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced,” she said. “We started experiencing a rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred, and hateful language towards us … 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 then went onto say that she’s incredibly grateful to have got the job and been in the Star Wars universe, along with a thank you to showrunner Lesyle Headland.
What do you think of The Acolyte’s cancellation?