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Obi-Wan Kenobi's Moses Ingram speaks out against racist messages

Reva (Moses Ingram) in Lucasfilm's OBI-WAN KENOBI, exclusively on Disney+. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Moses Ingram in 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'. (Disney)

Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram has spoken out about racist messages she has received from some Star Wars fans.

Ingram, who plays the villainous Reva Sevander in the series, was also defended by the official Star Wars Twitter account.

The tweet said: "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."

They also directly addressed Star Wars fans: "There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist."

Read more: Disney+ adds violence warning to Obi-Wan Kenobi

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - MAY 26: Moses Ingram attends the studio showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration for
Moses Ingram attends the Star Wars Celebration. (Getty Images for Disney)

Ingram also posted a host of racist messages she had received on Instagram. Uploading screenshots of the various messages which contained numerous racial slurs, Ingram said: "There are hundreds of those. What bothers me is that there’s this feeling that I should shut up and take it or ground it and bury it...but I’m not built like that.”

Ingram is not the first actor of colour to face abuse after joining the Star Wars franchise. John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran faced online harassment after the release of The Last Jedi in 2017.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 12: (L-R)Hayden Christensen, Moses Ingram and Ewan McGregor attend the
Hayden Christensen, Moses Ingram and Ewan McGregor. (WireImage)

The abuse caused Tran to quit social media and Boyega would later speak out about the way Disney diluted the roles of their characters for the third film in the sequel trilogy: “You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything.

"[But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are, and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.”

Ingram has previously discussed diversity in Star Wars, saying to The Independent: "‘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 colour, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Watch below: Moses Ingram on her character in Obi-Wan Kenobi series