DC Universe unveiled the trailer for its new series Titans on Thursday, and people are speculating that racist fan reactions have caused the series’ star Anna Diop to disable some of her Instagram comments, Syfy reports.
Diop plays the character Starfire on the show, which is based on the comic book series Teen Titans.
In the comic, Starfire is an orange alien, and fans are seemingly upset about Diop playing the character because she’s Black.
There hasn’t been confirmation that she disabled her Instagram comments because of the racist backlash, but back in April, photos of Diop on set in her character’s costume circulated online and the actress received cruel remarks because of it, per comicbook.com
“For the sake of our incredible fans – I hated that this is the first picture people are seeing,” Diop said in April, according to the site. “It’s out of context and it’s a misrepresentation of the incredible character I get to play. And also a misrepresentation of the phenomenal production behind it all. With that said, the hate speech that followed was deplorable. And though I am highly unbothered, I do want to use this as an opportunity to say that tearing people down is not something that I tolerate. For myself or anyone else.”
Diop has the comments enabled on one post announcing that she’ll be in Jordan Peele’s upcoming movie Us.
I also don’t care for her skin color I just wish she was cast as a prettier person than Anna diop. Starfire is suppose to be beautiful even if she is a different color. Maybe Anna diop should of been meaghan in later season.
— HitEmUp (@BrisenoLeo) July 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/holyswordex/status/1020617160782221312
All the hate Anna Diop is getting rn is just another reminder of how much the world hates black women.
— Da Deuce Don♥️ (@jasmineisblk) July 21, 2018