The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg says ‘vitriolic’ Star Wars fans caused show’s cancellation

‘I’m gonna be transparent and say that it’s not a huge shock for me,’ the actor said

The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has blamed “vitriolic” Star Wars fans for the show’s cancellation.

Stenberg starred in the spin-off as twin Force users on opposite sides of a war and, earlier this month, it was revealed the show, which first aired in June, would not be returning,

Disney’s announcement arrived after the series received a slew of negative reviews by internet trolls, which saw it slapped with the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any titled in the Star Wars franchise. By comparison, critical reviews of the show were mostly positive.

Stenberg has issued a candid statement on the show’s cancellation, which she said “was not a huge shock”.

“There are many folks out there that I want to acknowledge and I want to show appreciation and love and support for, so that’s why I’m hopping on here to talk about this, which is that our Star Wars show has been cancelled,” Stenberg shared on Instagram on Wednesday (28 August).

“And I’m gonna be transparent and say that it’s not a huge shock for me. Of course I live in the bubble of my own reality, but for those who aren’t aware, 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.”

The actor said the comments she received were “hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudiced hatred and hateful language”, adding that they ‘really affected me when I first got the job”.

She continued: “And this really affected me when I first got the job. Even though I anticipated it happening, it’s not something you can fully understand what it feels like until it’s happening to you.

“However, I feel like I’ve kinda moved through those feelings in various ways, including being vocal about it myself. For me, it just became a situation where there was no option but for me to honour my sense of ethics and my belief system and my value system while being in this very unique position.

Stenberg said that speaking out again the attacks was “honouring my value system... even within the context of working for Disney and working within the large, massive IP that is Star Wars”.

Amandla Stenberg in ‘The Acolyte’ (Disney)

She added: “On that topic, I just have to say it has been an incredible honour and dream for me to be in this universe.

“Even though, of course I’m very sad about the show being cancelled, and I’m sad about us not being able to give people invested in it more, I still just feel a lot of levity and joy around the fact that I got to experience it and that people loved it and that people were so responsive.”

Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae said he was “quite surprised personally” that the series was cancelled, adding that he was “really looking forward to watching a season two” overseen by creator Leslye Headland.

The Acolyte is not the first time toxic fans have mobilised to leave negative reviews for a franchise instalment with more progressive content. Thirty per cent of the IMDb ratings of the current series of Doctor Who, starring Ncuti Gatwa, received one star.

According to Deadline, the 2023 live action remake of The Little Mermaid’s Moviepilot score dipped to a 0.7 out of 10 rating. IMDb put a warning on the movie’s page reading, “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title”. The website changed the way that its star ratings were calculated for this film.

Before the first female-led Marvel movie Captain Marvel opened in cinemas in 2019, trolls review bombed it to the extent that its Rotten Tomatoes “Want to See” score fell to 28 per cent. Rotten Tomatoes then changed their website so that audiences couldn’t submit reviews until a film or show came out.