Navigating Hollywood Toxicity

Aside from the obvious scandal over at Warner Bros involving some high ranking officials there are high hopes for the IPs for which they have announced projects for.

Coming off Massive successes in Zack Snyder's Justice League and Godzilla vs Kong the studio should look to their IPs as well as what characters and stories exist within the current ones that are pleasing audiences.

With announcements regarding Blue Beetle and Zatanna from DC it seems like they are diving deep into the catalogues to try and create diversity and bring more audience members in. Even if you disagree with their business practises as of late which I do, convincing yourself this is all a conspiracy to bury Zack Snyder is a fool's errand. Why? More films and more characters being exposed to larger audiences is good for everyone including potential new fans and even existing ones.

Some people want to see the negative and while there's a lot to see from WB at the current moment not all of it is being done by design as a way to stick it to a fan base. I believe this because as much as I loved ZSJL I have always maintained excitement for other projects and will remain as such. I can simultaneously despise Walter Hamada, Geoff Johns, Toby Emmerich and Ann Sarnoff while still knowing that they were not the only ones involved in the making of these movies. Films are years sometimes of hard work and determination and to boil it down to these four and not showing an excitement would be a disservice to the many talented writers and directors.

There are people over at WB who do not deserve their current positions that any creative would love to have. That's plain and simple. The optics of who those people are and why are not the topic of conversation we would be having. Studios do have the final say and we can dislike the final product but let's not forget it's not ours in the end to change. What we should not be tolerating is the hate, violence, racism and discrimination tha occurs. Creative differences and opinions are just that. Differences. Racism, violence and hate are very different things and should not be likened to wanting sequels. Ever. If we never get the Snyderverse but we do get the above mentioned people terminated for allowing racism and hate then I will still be happy. That's the end goal. Not 3-7 movies. Ending the enabling of people like Joss Whedon and Geoff Johns. Ending talented actresses like Charisma Charpenter being berated while pregnant. Ending experiences like Ray Fisher being told how his race should be represented on screen by two white men who clearly don't even know to begin having these conversations.

It's not just about Justice League and handing the reins to Snyder. It's about making sure the system is changed so that we don't rinse and repeat the cycle when fans get fed up with Snyder eventually. Harassment from anywhere even if done on the name of progress defeats the point. I am not siding on either pasture here. The grass is not always greener on the other side. If you need examples of the fandom you can find both on twitter. That's just a fact. I won't air specifics but if you want to see it for yourself and create an opinion either look into it on twitter if you already have an account or create an account and so the research. It's there. I know it is.

It's not just the Snyder fandom. It's all fandoms when they feel a divide. All passionate fan bases have taken the jump at times. Those who defend JK Rowling and those who turned on Martin Scorsese for his comments come to mind. This isn't new. It's just unprecedented to watch a studio go back and recreate something. That doesn't mean it's going to become a new trend and nor does it mean that it should. Again at the end of the day if we continue to just demand the stories we don't like to be changed do we even care about artistic freedom or do only care about our wallets? I can't just be mad because I chose to watch something and didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

As a creative myself this never sat right with me. Just ignoring parts of a series or only holding onto moments that we deem worthy of existing. If we trust these people to tell stories we are not trusting them to write it our way but to write. If you want to control something write it yourself and keep the control. We cannot shout for writers to change their endings or even regret having written things a certain way because it's not our baby to do that with. An example of this I can use is the change in the ending to The Stand. I personally would have left it the same but the ending was written by King himself so he obviously approved it and stands by it now. He can change his mind if he was hesitant but with it. Creatives have doubts and insecurities too and that's why holding them to this pedestal makes it difficult for them to feel these things without getting ridiculed.

This is not a one fandom issue. It's not just something that has become a recent thing. I would just caution everyone to make sure we continue to fight for the right thing and not get caught up in a fight that won't have any impact on things that matter.