- "The Acolyte" lead Amandla Stenberg released a song that criticized racist "Star Wars" fans.
- It comes after a wave of online abuse and harassment surrounding the show.
Amandla Stenberg has released a song criticizing racist "Star Wars" fans after a torrent of abuse over "The Acolyte."
Stenberg plays a pair of Force-sensitive twins, Osha and Mae, in the Disney+ show, which is set around 100 years before the "Star Wars" prequel movies.
She has been a common target of abuse since the show started streaming, both for her race — she is Black — and elements of the plot some fans perceive as "woke."
On Wednesday, the actor posted a song on Instagram — complete with a music video — and explained in the caption that it's aimed at the people sending her "intolerable racism."
In the song, Stenberg also refers to her 2018 interview with Trevor Noah about the movie "The Hate U Give," which she starred in.
She told Noah that "white people crying actually was the goal" of that film, which dealt with police violence against Black pepe.
Some social media users misappropriated the quote in early June, wrongly implying that it was about "Star Wars."
Stenberg's video is the first time a "Star Wars" actor has sought to combat backlash against them as it occurs.
Fans have long engaged in campaigns of abuse against actors in the franchise in recent years.
In 2022, Ewan McGregor said he was "sickened" by racist messages to his costar, Moses Ingram, after the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series.
And "The Last Jedi" actor Kelly Marie-Tran left social media in 2018 after harassment she said drove her to therapy, and hasn't posted since.
Stenberg's song prompted a backlash of its own, stirring more insulting messages from fans.
Many of the comments and insults criticizing the show claim that Disney "ruined" Star Wars.
Wider audiences seem to differ — according to Variety, "The Acolyte" is one of the most-streamed TV shows since its release.
The outlet's chart of streaming shows gave "The Acolyte" a total watch time of 380.5 million minutes between June 7 and June 13.