Amandla Stenberg, the actress who played Mae and Osha in The Acolyte, confirmed that the show was cancelled and then proceeded to blame “a rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol” for why the show was cancelled.

(L-R): Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

In a video uploaded to her Instagram Stories, Stenberg stated, “Our show, our Star Wars show has been cancelled. I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me.”

“Of course, I live in the bubble of my own reality but for those who aren’t aware 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 hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred, and hateful language towards us.”

(L-R): Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Next, she said, “And, you know, 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 . For me, it just became a situation where there was no option but for me to honor my sense of ethics and my belief system and my value system while being in this very unique position,” Stenberg continued.

“It is kind of like I had this very unique experience of experiencing the world at-large which is, of course, hyper divisive right now through the lens of this very unique opportunity of being in Star Wars,” she elaborated. “And it brought up a lot for me, a lot sociopolitical dynamics, a lot about my own value system, how I respond to that kind of hatred, how I move through the world at-large. And 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 within the context of working for Disney within the large massive IP that is Star Wars.”

Osha (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

“On that topic, I just have to say, it has been an incredible honor and dream for me to be in this universe. It still feels —. even though, of course, I’m very sad about the show being canceled and I’m sad about us not being able to give people, who are vested into it more, ’cause I just feel a lot of levity and joy around the fact that I got to experience it and that people loved it and that people were so responsive.” Stenberg stated. “I poured through a lot of different iterations of fan art, and ship art, and fan theories, and things that were just so beautiful and filled my heart with joy.”

“And I just want to let those people know out there who supported us in that way, and supported us vocally 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,” she said. “And it made all of the challenging elements of it completely worthwhile for me. Plus my love of sci-fi and fantasy and being able to be apart of the legacy of something that I so deeply value and something that means so much to me and I’ve looked up to for so long.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: Amandla Stenberg attends the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

From there she thanked Lucasfilm, “I also just want to say thank you to Lucasfilm for just being a f***ing awesome team. They were so wonderful to work with and just everybody I worked with in Lucasfilm particularly Rayne Roberts, my producer, was just — had such vision and hope and like such a mission for what we were going to continue bringing into the sci-fi universe, into the Star Wars universe. And it was a really beautiful, energizing, life-changing experience to be part of.

Next, Stenberg thanked showrunner Leslye Headland, “And I have to thank Lesyle Headland. I just f***ing love that b***h. She’s just one of the best people in the world. I think she’s so incredibly talented and unique and kind and I’ll love her forever. And I will love this experience with her forever.

But at the end of the day I just want to thank everybody who watched it. Thank you for being so loving and supportive and excited and nerdy and awesome and I’ll continue to process this for a long time.

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – MAY 21: The Acolyte’s Amandla Stenberg poses at Disneyland on May 21, 2024 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Disney)

She then started uncontrollably laughing and paraphrased Vice President Kamala Harris, “But maybe the last thing I want to say on this subject is that we all exist in the context in all of which we live.”

After collecting herself, she added, “But I’m serious. It’s not lost on me how, the way that these events have unfolded is also due to the hyper divisive of the time that we live in that is driven, I would say at this point, by echo chambers of thought and algorithms that reinforce our biases. And I think that applies to everybody. But I think in a particular sect of people it manifests as a lot of fear for what is changing and a lot hatred for what is other.”

“And I would challenge us all and challenge myself to continue questioning what it is that I digest and think critically about what shapes it. Let’s vote, y’all. Let’s vote. Let’s vote. I think that’s all I have to say,” she concluded.

Stenberg’s comments are not surprising. Back in June as many Star Wars fans never even tuned into The Acolyte, Stenberg attempted to leverage Juneteenth to attack them with a diss track where she claimed to be the victim of racism.

She posted, “Happy Juneteenth and to those who are flooding me with intolerable racism—since it took me 72 hours on my laptop to make this song and video, u got 72 hours to respond. and I expect choreo!!”

The song begins with Stenberg gyrating as the term “Discourse” blinks rapidly over her head. Ironically, the lyrics “We so bored, don’t f*** with your discourse” are repeated.

 

From there, Stenberg sings, “I’m going viral on twitter again. Open up the news to find some interesting things. 20 million views. Interview from 2018 with Trevor the King when I was thirteen. (Stenberg was 20 at the time of the interview with Trevor Noah)”

The song continues, “I was running from city to city to speak on a story, you know the one, police murdering a black boy. My people cried in the theaters finding release. White people cried. They could see us as human beings. Trevor ask what I want the people to know. I say white people crying was the goal. If they could take one thing what would it be? I say empathy. Ooooo that’s why they mad at me?”

(R): Osha (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Stenberg then sings, “They splice lines, make hate they recognize, make it look like the same propaganda they spew ’cause they conflate our pain with violence and try to weaponize everything that we do. The desperation of oppressors is rising and now they holding onto any ole thing they can use. If you rely upon misinformation then that tells me you afraid of the truth.”

From there, Stenberg sings “We so bored, don’t f*** with your discourse” over and over again.

(L-R): Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Next, she sings, “And now you listening imma tell you something fascinating. They spinning woke. Bastardize it and appropriate it. Last I recall woke was something we created. Speak truth to power. Keep an eye out for you silly racists. And now they use it to describe anything they threatened by. Remember when Gambino put it in the zeitgeist? It was all about the people recognizing bigotry. The power of community not fodder for your clickbait.”

“Speaking of which, journalists I’m looking at you. Did you forget it’s your job to provide the truth? Spreading divisiveness, mining the metrics and data, seem you gave up all your ethics for money and views. And I can tell that the people are tired and the kids don’t trust anything that they view. We can learn something from their discernment. The future’s coming and it’s always the youth,” she continues.

The chorus then repeats.

She then concludes, “My sis said don’t let it get to my spirit, but I’m sick and f***ing tired of suppressing my rage. 400 years of taking their bulls**t to compartmentalize like my ancestors had to encaged? If you don’t confront the pain that you live with, it’ll manifest as addiction diseases and hate. I’ve seen the infection repression can give ya. I’m not gonna be the next one sent to an early grave.”

Osha (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Furthermore, Lucasfilm has not issued any statements on why The Acolyte was cancelled, but the show had the worst viewership of any Star Wars series on Disney+. Nielsen’s watch time data revealed that the show’s finale only managed to garner 335 million minutes watched. That was less than the 2-episode premiere, which brought in 488 million minutes watched.

Nielsen Top 10 Original Streaming Data for the week of July 15-21, 2024

Nielsen’s viewership numbers reflect a significant decline in reviews per episode of the series on IMDb. The first episode received 26,000 reviews while the finale only received 11,000.

Not only did the show receive poor viewership, but those who did watch did not like it. The show has a 4.1 out of 10 with the plurality (45.8%) of all reviews being a 1 out of 10. The unweighted mean is actually a 3.7 out of 10.

Reviews for The Acolyte by episode on IMDb

As noted above, it was the worst performing Star Wars show on Disney+. As noted by X user NowItsKnown, the show’s finale performed worse than every single live-action Star Wars show released on Disney+ before it including Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, and The Mandalorian.

Ahsoka’s finale back in October 2023 saw its viewership hit 575 million minutes watched. The Acolyte’s finale viewership is 41% less than Ahsoka’s.

Similarly, Andor’s finale brought in 674 million minutes watched. The Acolyte’s viewership is over 50% less than Andor’s.

 

It gets even worse when you compare it to Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett. Obi-Wan Kenobi had 860 million minutes watched for the week of its finale. The Acolyte’s viewership is over 60% less than Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Similarly, The Book of Boba Fett’s viewership had 885 million minutes watched. The Acolyte was over 62% less than The Book of Boba Fett.

The Mandalorian Season 3 had 1.012 billion minutes watched. The Acolyte performed 66% worse than it.

(L-R): The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Mayfeld (Bill Burr) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.

What do you make of Stenberg blaming “a rampage of hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol” for the show getting cancelled?