The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has blamed conservatives for the cancelation of her show, which she advocated as the “gayest Star Wars ever.” In an Instagram story, Stenberg said she appreciated the fans of the show, and blamed a “targeted attack” that the show received “by the alt-right” for it not getting a second season on Disney+.
“I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg said in the video, per Variety. “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. That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us.”
The show took place in the Star Wars universe but did not follow the classic characters of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, or Princess Leia. Instead, it focused on a time well before that era, with Stenberg starring as a Jedi Master who investigates crimes. The show featured the first time preferred pronouns were used in the Star Wars universe, which denotes an allegiance to gender ideology. Stenberg, who is non-binary herself, uses her/they pronouns. There were also lesbian witches in The Acolyte.
“This really affected me when I first got the job,” Stenberg continued. “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.”
Stenberg joined showrunner Leslye Headland in an interview with The Wrap to discuss the show. Headland said “people have told me that it’s the gayest Star Wars and frnakly I’m into it.”
“I think that Star Wars is so gay already,” Stenberg said, joining in. She, Headland, and The Wrap’s Drew Taylor all agreed that C3P0 is gay and that R2D2 is a lesbian.
“It has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe,” Stenberg said in her Instagram story upon the show’s cancelation. “Of course, I’m very sad about the show being canceled. … 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.”
Stenberg, an actress with her own progressive mission, put out a Juneteenth video speaking about the oppression she faces as a black actress with major Disney contracts. She also backed the Gaza protesters at Columbia University and denounced the conservative use of the term “woke” to slam progressive policies and ideologies, saying that was something created by the black community.
“Last I recall, woke was something we created. Speak truth to power. Keep an eye out for you silly racists and now they use it to describe anything they threatened by,” Stenberg sang.
