Star Wars: The Acolyte Lead Amandla Stenberg Was Not Surprised By The Show’s Cancellation Blames “Alt-Right” and “Bigotry”

According to reports, Disney had recently canceled the latest “Star Wars” Disney+ show, “The Acolyte.” Now, the show’s star, Amandla Stenberg, is making a statement about the cancellation and claims they aren’t surprised by the decision.

Of course, like the access media, Stenberg blames “vitriol,” but the reality is that hardly anyone watched the show. While some people on both sides were vitriolic, the majority of people didn’t care about “The Acolyte.” The low viewership and lack of critical praise led to the cancellation. Even the people who hate watched the show helped the show achieve the numbers it did, but those numbers were not high enough to warrant the massive expense of this $180 million show.

Amandla, who played Osha and Mae in the show, addressed the situation in a post to their Instagram stories.

“Hello,

I thought I would get on here, and just speak candidly. I hate doing this, but I’m gonna do it. I honestly, I don’t use social media very much anymore, and I’m so happy about that, but 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 show, our Star Wars show, has been canceled. And I’m gonna say, I’m really 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, 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. 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.”

So Stenberg, like the media, blames “hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language” for the end of the show.  The data proves that the general public did not watch the show globally. The vocal minority could not possibly be the only cause of the show’s failure.

The show had the lowest opening and viewership of all the Disney+ “Star Wars” shows.

It’s also important to note that Amandla also released a song/video mocking the fans they didn’t think liked their work and calling them “racists.” That did not sit well with people either.

Amandla continues,

“On that topic, I just have to say it has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe. Even though, 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, because, 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.

I poured through a lot of different iterations of fan art and ship art and fan theories and things that were just so beautiful and filled my heart with joy. 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 are deeply loved and appreciated. It made this job all the worthwhile for me, and it made all of the challenging elements of it completely worthwhile for me. That plus my love of sci-fi and fantasy and being able to be a part of the legacy of something that I so deeply value, and something that means so much to me and I’ve looked up to for so long.”

Once again, they blame the “alt-right” trying to make this a political issue when the show failed due to a lack of viewership. Not everyone who did not support the show is Republican. It is disingenuous to keep insisting that only “alt-right” people disliked the show.

That being said those who don’t like the show should never harass the actors on the show. It isn’t their fault. They are just doing a job. But those actors should also not make videos mocking fans either.

They thank people at Lucasfilm and show-runner Leslye Headland before wrapping up with this statement.

“Maybe the last thing I want to say on the subject is that we all exist in the context of all in which we live. But I’m serious. It’s not lost on me how the way that these events have unfolded is also due to the hyper divisiveness of the time that we live in. That is driven, I would say at this point, by echo chambers of thought and algorithms that reinforce our biases. And I think that applies to everybody, but I think that in a particular sect of people. It manifests as a lot of fear for what is changing, a lot of hatred for anything that is other. And I would challenge us all and challenge myself to continue questioning what it is that I digest and think critically about what shapes it. And let’s vote. Y’all, let’s vote. Let’s vote. I think that’s all I have to say.”

Finally something I agree with in Amandla’s statement.

Social media, especially, is trying to keep us angry and divided. Echo chambers of thought are not always helpful to see the entire picture. However, if one is to be fair and “think critically” about the situation, going by the facts, then one would notice that while yes, there were some people who were vocal about not liking the show, many more simply did not watch the show.

Disney’s fundamental issue with “Marvel” and especially “Star Wars” is their constant effort to push out so much content, much of which feels derivative and not in like with the IP, that the general public simply does not care. Blaming anyone who didn’t like the show or didn’t even care enough to watch the show is likely to cause more people to turn against new iterations of “Star Wars.”

I understand why Amandla is upset and is taking it personally. But this is a result of Disney’s mishandling of the franchise and fans’ lack of interest. “Toxic fans” can not be both the “minority” and sole cause of the show’s failure. Nor can they all be “alt-right” or “conservative” either.

Putting people in a labeled box to make it easier to dismiss them doesn’t fix the issues. Honestly it’s the exact same behavior they claim the “other side” has done.

But that’s just my opinion.