The Star Wars fandom continues to embarrass itself. The latest series in the franchise, “The Acolyte,” has fallen victim to yet another review-bombing campaign from the audience — an unfortunate practice that’s often rooted in racism and misogyny.
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The prequel series, which stars Amandla Stenberg, earned glowing reviews from critics, currently sitting at 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The series has also been a ratings hit for Disney +, standing as the largest debut for the streamer so far this year.
Yet, despite its warm reception, the show is still not immune to some of the harshest parts of the Star Wars fanbase, as it currently sits at a shocking 15 percent audience score.
For years now, certain projects in the franchise have been review bombed, with hundreds of audience reviews on sites like IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes pouring in and affecting their overall scores. Dedicated audiences feel a right to these stories, and unfortunately, sectors of these fandoms have some serious racial, misogynistic, and often homophobic biases they operate with when engaging in this content.
Stenberg opened up about some of this when speaking to GQ UK earlier this month. “There is a specific kind of ‘Star Wars’ fan that’s very vocal on the internet...they’ve called our show ‘The Woke-alyte’ a fair amount – which I’m like, ‘OK, what about it?’”
Some of the backlash from fans also came from a clip of Stenberg that started to circulate as the series premiered. As Forbes points out, an interview clip from years ago where Stenberg talked about “making white people cry” while promoting her film “The Hate U Give,” was reshared by thousands, completely taken out of its context and used as a way to criticize the actress and a perceived “woke agenda” from Lucasfilm.
Again, this is not a new move in the Star Wars fandom playbook. Stars like John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, and, as The Root reported, Obi-Wan star Moses Ingram faced relentless attacks and even racial threats from the fans. God forbid the Star Wars franchise represents more than just the white leads of the original series. With a Black and queer lead like Stenberg, scores of fans are finally seeing themselves in this beloved, fantasy world.
Luckily for Stenberg it seems she is focusing on the love she is receiving from other viewers, specifically the Black fans and content creators. “There’s also a significant sect of Black creators and Black ‘Star Wars’ fans on TikTok who are being vocal about…the pushback that we’ve received and where it comes from,” she also told GQ.
“And those folks make me so deeply happy, and those are the folks that I’m so grateful to, and I want to send as much recognition and love and gratitude towards them because they keep us grounded.”
“The Acolyte” is available to stream now on Disney+.
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