Amandla Stenberg Says The Acolyte's Cancellation Was 'Not a Huge Shock'

[hewontgo]

Amandla Stenberg Says The Acolyte's Cancellation Was 'Not a Huge Shock' After Star Wars Fandom's 'Hatred' and 'Prejudice' https://t.co/I822WL9QIM
- People (@people) August 29, 2024
Amandla Stenberg is sharing her honest reaction to The Acolyte’s cancellation

Comments

[skyler_white_yo]

I haven’t seen the show, so I have no opinion on whether it is good or bad. But I do want to say that some Star Wars fans are sad pathetic little creatures, who love nothing more than to use their so called love of the movies to be misogynistic and racist AF.

Hot take ahead

It also makes me wonder if these weirdos even like Star Wars, because it feels like all I ever hear is how much people hate the movies/shows. They saw the first movie when they were five, and decided to make it their life long personality. so now nothing will ever live up to they way they felt when they were five years old, and it’s just depressing to see people live that kind of life.

[lanrek]

the show was great imo and stayed in the top 10 of disney+ through its entire run, so people watched it

it also did a good job of bringing in young viewers that have never been interested in star wars before, so I think it’s dumb for disney to not let it continue at least another season to wrap everything up

and as for your hot take, you’re absolutely right. a lot of the online hate is from those who don’t even care about star wars. they’ve just joined the “i hate star wars” club so they can be within a community of bigots bc they’re just sad horrible ppl irl and it’s what their favorite alt-right creator told them to hate

[skyler_white_yo]

I was never into Star Wars, but I understand it’s significance in pop culture. I understand that people feel passionate about it and that’s all well and good. I am baffled at the people who have made it their life’s mission to hate everything about it while claiming to be fans. But I think you are right, the right wing bigots have taken over and are using it as cover for their hate. Which I find weird too because Darth Vader and the Imperial empire were an open allegory for Nazis and fascism. So here you have these right wing morons cheering on the resistance in the movies, and spew their proud boy nonsense on social media.

[gettyupcowboy]

I loved the show and think it’s on par with many of the SW shows. It really brought in interesting elements like the witches, the Jedis essentially being a cult and dark side doesn’t mean one sided.

It should have been renewed imo.

[inwazyja]

she's right and she should say it, even though I hate that she has to.

SW fans (at least a sizeable subsection of them) keep showing the worst of fandom culture to the world over and over again. we've seen it since the fucking prequels came out, but it's been much more prevalent in the age of social media and it always targets women and minority actos, bonus points if it's both.

[pseudonygma]

What's interesting is you don't see this type of toxicity in the Star Trek fandom, which makes me wonder if this is because Star Trek was diverse and inclusive from the get-go so no fan felt like they got "conned" into liking it in the first place?

Because lbr, Star Wars has been a very white and culturally appropriating affair since the very beginning so I can see why (not that I agree with it) certain fans have embraced this universe as an escapist, utopian ideal and felt like the franchise was "retconning" things by becoming more and more inclusive (which is absurd when we're talking about a franchise with aliens). It's like that one comment I read that says certain fans seem to relate more to a talking racoon than they could with a POC.

[recognitions]

Eh, the reaction to Discovery was pretty ugly

[heroicattempt]

This is exactly what is happening in Star Trek. Hateful fans trash Discovery for having a black female lead in a new and interesting setting within their universe. It just makes less sense than the SW issue because the whole point if ST is diversity. Instead they just want a white Kirk type lead, which is why they appreciate Strange New Worlds more. But the online comments are so toxic I avoid any and all Trek social media. The anti-fans just want to revel in the media they know and love and shit on anything new.

[lanrek]

I feel horrible for her. It’s the same racist behavior that Kelly and John went through. Disney and Lucasfilm need to protect their artists. The fact that they have stayed silent through all of this speaks volumes

[daijouboo]

The fucked up thing is that she's been facing this kind of racism and bigotry her whole career. I remember all the shit she got for hunger games when she was a literal child. It just shows how little we have progressed for as much as the entertainment industry likes to self aggrandize for being diverse and inclusive.

[iznanassi]

i was about to say the same thing. like shes just been spending her whole life being attacked for being who she is, starting with THG then when she was figuring out her sexuality/gender and now this. i have a lot of respect for her for navigating that.

[lydzi]

She is right and honesty, I'm done with some part of the SW fans. We can't have nice things. Was the show with flaws ? Yes. But everyone needs to remind themselves that most of the so called beloved tvshows have weak first seasons. We should have time to settle the environnement, the characters and the storylines. Also, it was very obvious that lead pocs, queers characters and grey morally ones were not going to cut it within the conservative and very vocal part of the fandom.

Between Netflix's cancelling the shows with good premices, the Acolyte getting cut and Andor announcing that the second season will be the finale because they don't want to risk being cut before ending or getting axed randomly, I'm mad af. They want us to pay for fucking garbage ? They want to build cults from nothing ? no effort, no time, no respect for everyone working on a show ?

[smilla_sini]

Where did you get this about Andor? Do you realize that at the current pace of production 5 seasons of it means that already nearly geriatric Diego Luna will be playing a guy in "late 20s" till he's like 60?

[pseudonygma]

But isn't the production schedule part of the problem? You can't reasonably milk a franchise by drawing it out this much. People in television had more stable employment when shows had yearly 28 episodes running one episode a week. They literally shot episodes as they were being aired so there's no reason for studios to be releasing 8-episode seasons the way they are now. It shouldn't take 2-3 years per mediocre season, and I feel bad for all the people involved because what the hell is an actor even suppose to say during a promo tour about a project they did 2 years ago?

[smilla_sini]

I agree with you on all this, but this particular case of Andor is different, it has a precise timeline because they set it to be the 5 years leading up to Rogue One. The only problem is that, even with them retconning Cassian's age trying to make it look less ridiculous(as he was 26-27 in Rogue One), he still looks his 45 or whatever, and even if they shot it fast and made it in 5 years, him playing this role would still be laughable.
The industry has no problems recasting actresses as soon as they turn 35, meanwhile here they played themselves (specifically Diego, being a producer).