THE ACOLYTE Star Amandla Stenberg Breaks Silence on STAR WARS Show Cancellation

Star Wars: The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg broke his silence on the show’s cancellation and took to social media to share his thoughts and feelings about the decision.

In a new message shared on Instagram Story, Stenberg said the show’s cancellation “didn’t come as a huge surprise” to them and also opened up about their experience with “an avalanche of abuse” the cast and crew faced when the show was first announced.

Stenberg said, “Hi, I thought I’d come out here and speak out. I hate to do it. I hate to do it, but I’m going to do it. Honestly, I don’t use social media much anymore and I’m so happy about that, but there’s a lot of people out there that I want to acknowledge and show appreciation and love and support for, so that’s why I’m here to talk about this, which is our show, our Star Wars the show has been cancelled.

“And I have to say, I’m really transparent and it’s not a huge shock to me. Of course, I live in my own bubble of reality, but for those who don’t know, there’s been a flurry of sarcasm that we’ve been dealing with since the show was announced, when it was still just a concept, when no one had seen it yet.

“That’s when we started experiencing a flurry of, I would say, hyperconservative bigotry and vitriol and prejudice and hatred and hate speech directed at us. That really hit me when I got the job, because it’s not something that, even if I expected it, it’s not something that you can fully understand what it feels like until it happens to you.”

They continued, “On that note, I just have to say that it’s been an incredible honor and a dream for me to be in this universe. Although, obviously, I’m very sad that the show is canceled and I’m sad that we’re not able to give more to the people involved, because… I still feel a lot of lightness and joy that I got to experience it, and that people loved it, and that people were so responsive.

“I looked at a lot of different iterations of fan art and ship art and fan theories and stuff that was just so beautiful and filled my heart with joy. I just want to let those people out there who have supported us in that way and have supported us vocally know, despite and in the face of all the vitriol that we’ve received and the kind of targeted attack, I would say that we’ve received from the alt-right, just that you are deeply loved and appreciated.

“It made this job very worthwhile for me, and it made all the challenging elements of it completely worthwhile for me. That, plus my love of science fiction and fantasy, and being able to be part of the legacy of something that I appreciate so deeply, and something that means so much to me and that I’ve admired for so long.”

Stenberg also thanked Lucasfilm, series creator Leslye Headland and the fans of the series, saying:

“I also want to thank Lucasfilm, for being just an amazing team. It was wonderful to work with them. Everyone I worked with at Lucasfilm, especially Rayne Roberts, my producer. Who had such a vision and hope and such a mission for what we would continue to bring to the Star Wars universe.

“And it was such a beautiful, empowering, life-changing experience. And I have to thank Leslye Headland, who I just, I just love that ta. Excuse my French. She’s just one of the greatest people in the world. I think she’s so incredibly talented and unique and kind, and I will always love her, and I will always love this experience with her.

“But at the end of the day, I also just want to say thank you to everyone who watched it. Thank you for being so loving and supportive and excited and nerdy and awesome, and I’m going to continue to process this for a long time.

“Maybe the last thing I want to say on this subject is that we all exist in the context in which we live (laughs). But I’m serious. It’s not lost on me that the way these events have unfolded is also due to the extreme divisiveness of the times in which we live.

“This is driven, I would say at this point, by echo chambers of thought and algorithms that reinforce our biases. And I think this is true for everyone, but I think in a particular sect of people, it manifests itself as a lot of fear of what is changing, a lot of hatred of anything that is different.

“And I would challenge all of us and myself to continue to question what I digest and think critically about what shapes it. And let’s go vote. Guys, let’s go vote. Let’s go vote. I think that’s all I have to say.”

Stenberg is obviously very forthright and honest about what goes on in his head and doesn’t hold back his thoughts.

There was a report as to why the show was canceled, and the explanation was simply that it didn’t have enough ratings to convince Disney to continue pumping money into the show.

It is explained: “Insiders explain that The Acolyte It was cancelled because the ratings were poor and there’s really nothing more to it.

It was explained “that The AcolyteRatings plummeted after the first two episodes, while with AndorRatings steadily increased throughout the season, so much so that the series was renewed for a second season. Andor It also received outstanding reviews, while The AcolyteReviews have been more mixed.”

For me, the story and characters just didn’t connect, and I didn’t think the writing or character development was very good. It’s the same reason I didn’t like The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Star Wars is just a hit and miss right now and this was a miss for me.