'Star Wars' Defends 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Actor Moses Ingram After Racist Abuse

The Star Wars franchise has come to actor Moses Ingram's defence after she revealed she had received hundreds of hateful and racist messages on social media.

The franchise said it was proud to welcome Ingram to the Star Wars family, adding that it was excited for Reva’s story to unfold.

Ingram, who plays Inquisitor Reva in the new Disney+ show, shared on Instagram several examples of the hateful and racist messages and comments she received following the show's debut on May 27.

She also claimed to have received hundreds of such messages, some of which included the N-word.

"There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist," the Star Wars franchise said on social media.

Meanwhile, Ingram responded to the racist remarks in a video posted to her Instagram stories, saying there was nothing anybody could do to stop this hate.

"The thing that bothers me is... this feeling of like, I just gotta shut up and take it, I just have to grin and bear it. And I'm not built like that," she added. "Thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and in the places that I'm not going to put myself. And to the rest of y'all, y'all weird."

Ingram landed her first major role in the Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit (2020) as Jolene, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Ingram is not the first actor of colour to have received racist abuse following their appearance in Star Wars media. John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran have also spoken out about the racist hate they received after appearing in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.