The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has finally addressed the abrupt cancellation of the Star Wars series.
Last week, we learned the sad news that the High Republic-set series is officially not moving forward with a second season. A lot of fans were upset with the announcement as they were hoping that the series would continue its run.
A recent report claimed that low viewership is cited as the reason behind the show's cancellation. It also doesn't help that it's been the subject of hate attacks and review-bombing from online trolls.
Amandla Stenberg Addresses The Acolyte Cancellation
In a series of video posts on her Instagram story, Stenberg opened up about the cancellation of The Acolyte for the first time.
She admitted that the news was "not a huge shock" for her due to the hate and vitriol that they've been receiving from toxic fans since the show premiered.
"I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me. 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 Acolyte star said.
"That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us."
Stenberg added, "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."
"However, I feel like I’ve kind of moved through those feelings in various ways, including being vocal about it myself. … It just 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 in the context of working for Disney."
Despite the negativity they've been receiving from the toxic fans, Stenberg is still grateful for the support she and her co-stars have received from those who were vocal about their love for the series.
"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," she continued.
"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 the worthwhile for me."
Manny Jacinto and Lee Jung-jae have also publicly addressed the show's cancellation with the latter saying that he was 'quite surprised" by the news.
Since the cancellation was announced, fans have started the "#RenewTheAcolyte" online campaign that would hopefully convince Lucasfilm and Disney to reverse their decision. It has garnered more than 50,000 signatures.
What do you think of Stenberg's remarks on the cancellation? Let us know in the comments!
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