The Acolyte was hit by wave after wave of negative reviews before it even launched on Disney+. While we've seen plenty of legitimate complaints since then, a sticking point for some has unfortunately been the show's inclusive cast and crew.
During a recent appearance on The View, lead star Amandla Stenberg was asked by the show's hosts about being targeted by "some in the right-wing" and addressed what she's previously described as "intolerable racism" (an issue also faced by Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram).
"It’s been very painful to me. It's not something that I think you can emotionally prepare for," Stenberg said (via SFFGazette.com). "[We] welcome criticism of the show when it comes to storytelling or performance. But when it comes to death threats, horrific, violent racist language, it’s unacceptable to me."
"And I’ve had to think really deep and hard about when you display discipline and when you display honor. And I guess what I mean by that is when do you decide to utilize discipline to not engage in a reactive way to hatred and when do you decide to engage in honor by honoring your values and your belief system."
"In this case, I decided that was the most important thing to me, to be vocal because I think that silence can send a message as well," she noted, referring to a music video shared on her social media accounts last month. "And inaction can be very dangerous."
"And so, well, I dropped a diss track...I dropped a diss track about it...and it’s called 'Discourse' and it really is about, of course, what I’ve been experiencing, but it’s also about the divisiveness of the culture and how difficult for all of us now to navigate information in this new era. It’s so difficult to tell what is true, you know, online."
"These online algorithms they shape our realities and our thinking and clickbait journalism and these algorithms also profit from our rage and our hatred," Stenberg added. "And I feel like that’s something we are aware of, but we don’t necessarily have enough discourse or infrastructure around because it’s so new."
We still don't know whether any potential "review-bombing" has had an impact on The Acolyte's viewership (yesterday evening's episode had a dismal IMDb score hours before hitting Disney+). Regardless, hearing that cast members have received death threats makes it clear that some people are taking their dislike of the series too far.
Ultimately, The Acolyte is unlikely to go down as a classic Star Wars story - "Choice" really should have been combined with "Destiny" as a single 50-minute episode - but the discourse seems to have taken an undeniably nasty turn since its launch. In some corners of the internet, the same is already happening to Agatha All Along.
You can watch the full interview with Stenberg below.