Moses Ingram, who made her debut as the Inquisitor Reva in Obi-Wan Kenobi, revealed that she has received “hundreds” of racist messages sent by toxic fans. In the wake of the Disney+ series debuting on May 27, racist messages that have been sent to Ingram include the use of the N-word and the accusation that the actress was nothing but 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.

“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. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”

Previously during an interview with The Independent, Ingram revealed that before the show had even debuted, Lucasfilm executives had actually warned her that she would likely face harassment online. That sadly makes sense since fellow POC Star Wars actors John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran faced their own share of online trolls after they joined the universe.

“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 also said: “Obi-Wan is going to bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before. 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 Star Wars Response

Indeed, the official Star Wars Twitter quickly released a response on May 31, writing that they were proud to welcome Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. They explained that "if anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say. We resist." And in a follow-up tweet, there are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, so people shouldn’t choose to be racist.

Besides that, Ewan McGregor, Obi-Wan himself, also posted a video clip on Twitter in response to the news: “I heard some of them this morning and it just broke my heart. Moses is a brilliant actor, she’s a brilliant woman and she’s absolutely amazing in this series…I just want to say as the leading actor in the series, as the executive producer on the series, that we stand with Moses. We love Moses, and if you’re sending her bullying messages, you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind. There’s no place for racism in this world.”