Ewan McGregor and the Star Wars social accounts have issued messages of support for Moses Ingram, who plays the Inquisitor Reva in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Ingram – who previously appeared in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix – recently took to her Instagram account to share the abusive messages she has been receiving. "Long story short, there are hundreds of those. Hundreds," she said.
McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan and acts as an executive producer on the show, issued a message on social media that started with a celebration of the new series being the most streamed debut for any Disney Plus series, and went on to address the vitriol being aimed as Ingram.
"It seems like some of the fanbase have decided to attack Moses Ingram online and send her the most horrendous, racist DMs, and I heard some of them this morning and they just broke my heart," McGregor said. "Moses is a brilliant actor, she's a brilliant woman, and she's absolutely amazing in this series... It just sickened me to my stomach to hear that this had been happening... We stand with Moses, we love Moses, and if you're sending her bullying messages then you're no Star Wars fan in my mind. There's no place for racism in this world."
A personal message from Ewan McGregor. pic.twitter.com/rJSDmj663KJune 1, 2022
The main Star Wars account issued a similar statement. "We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva's story to unfold," reads a statement on the official Star Wars Twitter account. "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 account added in a follow-up tweet.
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. pic.twitter.com/lZW0yvseBkMay 31, 2022
Kumail Nanjiani, who also appears in the series, sent a message of support for Ingram. "Moses Ingram is a phenomenal person and actor and I am excited about the decades of amazing work she has ahead of her," his tweet reads.
Ingram has previously revealed that she was warned racism would probably be coming her way. "It was something that Lucasfilm actually got in front of, and said, 'This is a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen," she told The Independent. "But we are here to help you; you can let us know when it happens.'"
In the same interview, Ingram talked introducing more diversity to the franchise. "Obi-Wan is going to bring the most diversity I think we've ever seen in the galaxy before," she said. "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."
You can check out our Obi-Wan Kenobi release schedule to find out when the next episode drops on Disney Plus.
