‘Star Wars’ defends actor in new ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ series after she received racist messages

The “Star Wars” franchise is defending one of its actors in the new “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series after she spoke out about receiving racist messages.

The “Star Wars” Twitter account put out a couple tweets Tuesday defending actor Moses Ingram, who shared a number of hateful messages on her Instagram that she had received since the show premiered on May 27.

“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold,” the tweet from the “Star Wars” account said. “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 racist,” a second tweet from the account said.

Ingram earlier in the day shared a number of racist direct messages she had received on her Instagram story, including one that called her a diversity hire and another that said her “days are numbered.”

The actor then addressed the messages in a video on her story, saying that the ones she shared were among “hundreds” of similar hateful messages.

“I question what my purpose is even being here in front of you saying this is happening,” Ingram said. “I think the thing that bothers me is that, like, sort of, this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself, which no one has told me, but this I just have to shut up and bear it, and I’m not built like that.”

Ingram also thanked fans who have stuck up for her and spoke out against the online hate she’s received.

“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 that I’m not going to put myself,” she said. “And to the rest of y’all: Y’all weird.”

Ingram is the latest “Star Wars” actor of color who has faced racism after joining the franchise. Actors John Boyega, who is Black, and Kelly Marie Tran, who is Vietnamese American, also received racist messages on social media after they joined “Star Wars” projects.

Boyega, who first appeared in the 2015 movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” got into a heated back-and-forth with fans on Twitter over the online hate shortly after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, telling them to “f— off.”

The actor told GQ in an interview that Disney did not know how to respond to his and Tran’s experiences as people of color receiving such hateful messages.

“Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” Boyega said. “You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f—- all.”

Tran, who starred in the 2017 movie “Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi,” chose to leave social media after the racist backlash to her casting.

“It was basically me being like, ‘Oh, this isn’t good for my mental health. I’m obviously going to leave this,’ ” Tran said in a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.