The Acolyte will end its run after a single season on Disney+, as it was recently revealed that the show has been canceled. Following the news, series star Amandla Stenberg has shared her emotional reaction.
Stenberg commented on the end of The Acolyte in a video posted to her Instagram Stories (per Variety). Getting honest, she said that it wasn’t “a huge shock” to learn that the show wouldn’t be moving forward with a second season. She attributed that to the high amounts of “bigotry and vitriol” that had been leveled at The Acolyte, going on to address how hard that was to handle at the start. Despite the backlash and the show’s cancelation, Stenberg still sees the silver lining to the situation, feeling grateful for the Star Wars fans who’ve shown the series support in spite of the online complaints.
“I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg said in her video. “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.”
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.
She continued, “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.”
Fans Have Shown Support by Trying to Save the Series
After it was revealed that The Acolyte was canceled, many fans put in effort to have the show renewed. The hashtag #SaveTheAcolyte was trending on social media, and a Change.org petition was created with hopes of convincing Disney to change course on their decision. The petition has collected around 57,000 signatures in just over one week’s time.
“It has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe,” Stenberg said of her time spent in the Star Wars franchise. “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.”