The Star Wars franchise is speaking out in support of Moses Ingram.
Ingram appeared on the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which launched on Friday on Disney+.
The star plays Inquisitor Reva, an adversary of the titular Jedi.
Ingram has revealed in an Instagram story that she had been sent “hundreds” of racist messages by toxic fans of the franchise.
Some of the messages include the use of the N-word, in addition to claims the star only got hired on the series as a diversity hire.
“There’s nothing anybody can do about this. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate,” Ingram said in a video posted to her Instagram story.
“I question my purposes in even being here in front of you saying that this is happening. I don’t really know.”
Ingram continued, “I don’t really know. I don’t really know. But I think the thing that bothers me is that like, sort of this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself.”
“This feeling that no one has told me, but like I just got to shut up and take it. I just got to bury it. And I’m not built like that.”
“So I really just wanted to come on, I think, and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”
The official Star Wars Twitter account released a statement on Tuesday.
“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold,” the statement reads.
“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,”the post concludes.
Prior to the series debut, Ingram told The Independent that executives at Lucasfilm told her she would likely face harassment online.
“It was something that Lucasfilm actually got in front of, and said, ‘This is a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen. But we are here to help you; you can let us know when it happens,’” Ingram said.
“‘Obi-Wan’ is going to bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before,” the star said at the time.
“To me, it’s long overdue. If you’ve got talking droids and aliens, but no people of color, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s 2022, you know. So we’re just at the beginning of that change. But I think to start that change is better than never having started it.”
The drama series brought back Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, reprising their roles from the prequel trilogy.
New episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi air Fridays on Disney+.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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