The “Star Wars” franchise is catching heat for Moses Ingram‘s debut as the villainous Inquisitor Reva in the latest installment “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which airs Fridays on Disney+.
On Monday, May 30, the actress shared screenshots from the “hundreds” of racist and hurtful messages she received for her role in a series of Instagram stories. Some of the shared messages read statements like, “Your days are numbered” and “You are not the first n—a in ‘Starwarss’ fool.”
One individual suggested Ingram received the role as Reva to meet the film’s diversity quota, writing, “You suck loser. You’re a diversity hire, and you won’t be loved or remembered for this acting role.”
In her response, Ingram said, “I also see those of you out there who put on a cape for me and that really does means the world to me because you know there’s nothing anybody can do about this. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate. I question what my purpose is in even being here in front of you saying that this is happening….I don’t really know.”
The 29-year-old continued later, “I really just want to come on, I think, 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. And to the rest of y’all…y’all weird.”
“Star Wars” stepped up to defend their newest star by releaseing a statement from their Twitter page. It read, “We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the ‘Star Wars’ family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist.”
Another tweet said, “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”
But Ingram isn’t the first Black actor to face backlash for a “Star Wars” role. Ironically, Black actors have always been part of the beloved franchise, considering films with Samuel L. Jackson, Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, who was paid to be the voice of Darth Vader’s character, and Lupita Nyong’o. However, back in 2015, trolls started the #boycottstarwars hashtag following John Boyega‘s starring role in “The Force Awakens.” They claimed the film supported “white genocide.” Years later in 2020, the British actor called out Disney for initially positioning his character Finn as a main role in the “Star Wars” trilogy, and pushing it to the side later.
Actor Ahmed Best played Jar Jar Binks in a number of “Star Wars” movies, starting with his role in 1999’s “Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace.” In 2018, he revealed that he became suicidal after facing similar backlash from media critics including a Vanity Fair writer who hated his character.
“I’ve been thinking of doing a twenty-year #ThePhantomMenace solo show next year. I don’t talk a lot about my experience as #jarjarbinks because a lot of it is very painful,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I faced a media backlash that still affects my career today. This was the place I almost ended my life. It’s still hard to talk about. I survived and now this little guy is my gift for survival. Would this be a good story for my solo show? Lemme know.”
In a new Instagram post, Tuesday, May 31, Best expressed his support of Ingram, sharing that she has now become part of the Black “Star Wars” family. In the caption, he said, “This queen is now family and we always have our family’s back. You may see the one in the front but you don’t see the vast army standing behind her. Shine bright @_mosesingram. You are the brightest star in the galaxy.”
