It's a little hard to believe that something like this is even necessary, but the official Star Wars Twitter account has released a brief statement following a significant amount of backlash aimed at The Queen's Gambit actress Moses Ingram, who made her debut as Sith Inquisitor Reva in Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi this past Friday.
"We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold," reads the Tweet. "If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist. There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist."
Ewan McGregor also weighed in to defend his co-star, attaching a message of support to his post after it was announced earlier today that the double-episode premiere was the most-watched Disney+ Original series.
While some of the criticisms of Ingram's role are perfectly valid (we had our own issues with all three of the show's Inquisitors), it's clear that a toxic element of the fandom has taken advantage of the negativity to launch flat-out racist attacks. A similar situation arose when Kelly Marie-Tran appeared as Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
“There’s nothing anybody can do about this,” Ingram said in response to the vile messages she received. “There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate. I question my purpose in even being here in front of you saying that this is happening. I don’t really know.”
She continued, “The thing that bothers me is this feeling inside of myself, that no one has told me, but this feeling that I have to shut up and take it, that I have to grin and bear it. And I’m not built like that. So, I wanted to come on and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places that I’m not going to put myself."
Fortunately, these type of comments do seem to be in the minority, although the recoil must have been significant enough to make Lucasfilm take notice.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.