George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise is a pillar of modern science fiction. What started out as a relatively ambitious space opera project became one of the most lucrative and popular franchises in history. Being present for several decades now, Star Wars has raised multiple generations of fans and it still remains one of the best fictional universes ever created.

But, after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, the whole fictional universe has been at the center of big controversies more often than not, which culminated with the toxic “fan” campaign against The Acolyte. But, the roots of this behavior go far back and are not related to The Acolyte per se, as the story we are going to report on confirms.

Namely, this story goes back to the filming of Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, in which actress Naomi Ackie was cast as Jannah. The Blink Twice star recently starred in a big interview for The Hollywood Reporter and in it, she revealed how she managed to avoid racial abuse by the so-called “fans” of the franchise, who often target people of color.

Disney’s takeover of Star Wars was a controversial movie, and while everyone knew things were going to change, some fans thought that they were changing just a bit too much. And from them, a group of so-called “fans,” who are not actually fans of the franchise, just toxic haters, began abusing and bullying people related to the franchise, be they actors, producers, or other people. They’ve especially been focused on people of color, women, and people who don’t adhere to the traditional gender divisions, as their toxicity turned into an anti-woke crusade.

This, of course, is something that the people entering the franchise are aware of and in light of that, actress Naomi Ackie, who played Jannah in Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, revealed how she managed to avoid racial abuse by the “fans” online (something her colleague John Boyega did not avoid when his casting was revealed):

“I had heard that anyone of color would get wrapped up in some racist shit. I didn’t want to have a place for them to come with their comments. They did some sort of magic thing where I instantly got the checkmark [verification] and all these followers, and then Star Wars came out, and it was fine and I sat with that for a bit. But then I eventually found myself scrolling too much, comparing myself to other people and becoming jealous, sad and depressed. I started putting stuff on my page that was attention-seeking. Trying to be funny on my Insta stories, or trying to be hot, trying to be a thirst trap from my fucking house share that I lived in with three other guys. It was like, what the fuck, this is not working at all and I don’t feel good about it. I eventually realized it was time to get rid of it properly.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

This is especially relevant in terms of the abuse Amandla Stenberg has recently faced, and we can only repeat our strongest condemnation of such behavior, as it is absolutely inappropriate.

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