The other week, we learned that Disney had canceled its newest Star Wars show The Acolyte, and this just barely a month after the first season wrapped up with lots of plot threads left dangling. Star Lee Jung-jae (Jedi Master Sol) said he was surprised by the cancelation, but Amandla Stenberg — who played the duel role of Osha and her twin sister Mae — wasn't as thrown.
"I'm gonna be transparent and say it's not a huge shock for me ," Sternberg said in an Instagram story. "For those who aren't aware, there has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was announced, when it was still just a concept and no one had even seen it. That’s when 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. I feel like I have kind of moved through those feelings in various ways, including being vocal about it myself...It 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 within the context of working for Disney and working within the large, massive IP that is Star Wars."
"It has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe...Of course I'm very sad about the show being canceled, and I'm sad about us not being able to give people who are invested into it more...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 worthwhile for me."
Headland also thanks Lucasfilm and showrunner Lesyle Headland, who she calls "one of the best people in the world." She says she'll "love this experience with her forever," although she admits that she'll probably be processing what happened "for a long time."
It's not hard to believe that Headland and her team experienced a bitgoted backlash; to use Headland's words from a while back, her feeds were flooded with "intolerable racism." There have been a lot of similar flare-ups in the Star Wars fandom in the past, with actors like John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran both talking about it. By the time the Obi-Wan Kenobi show came out, Disney was warning actors like Moses Ingram about the kind of backlash she would likely receive. It sounds like Stenberg was ready as well, but being ready and actually experiencing that sort of wave of hate are two different things.
That said, I don't agree with the implication that the bigoted backlash to The Acolyte was the reason the show was canceled, or at least not the main reason. Disney CEO Bob Iger has said he thinks the studio is overexposing big properties like Marvel and Star Wars, and has promised to pull back. With The Acolyte's high cost and middling viewership, it likely looked like an easy one to cut.
It's a fine line to walk, because while the racist backlash to a show like The Acolyte is unacceptable, there were plenty of fans who who didn't enjoy the series on its own terms. I personally found The Acolyte pretty underwhelming as a drama, but I wish Disney had given it another season to wrap up the story and to reward the show's many passionate fans who are even now trying to save it. And as a flashpoint in a wider culture war, the cancelation is regrettable.
Next up in Disney's parade of Star Wars content is Skeleton Crew, about a group of kids who find themselves on a spaceship far from home. That one's coming to Disney+ on December 3. Will it meet a similar fate to The Acolyte? Watch and see.
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