Scott Mendelson, of The Hollywood Reporter, just gave Hollywood a scapegoat. He claims that
“Hollywood is using diversity to justify potentially doomed franchise reboots.”
Mr. Mendelson claims that because of diversity and inclusivity, that franchises that are past their prime or are being rebooted, are setting up non white talent to fail.
“Hollywood is using inclusivity and diversity as an alibi for rebooting outdated franchises and past-their-prime properties, setting an entire generation of “not a white guy” talent up to fail commercially.”
Hollywood is Bending the Knee to a Woke Cancel Culture
That is a hell of a statement if I must say. Hollywood is using inclusivity and diversity because the twitter mobs, the LGBTQ community, and BLM are demanding it. They are bending the knee to a woke cancel culture. It’s not like you can’t find article after article about how one group is demanding this and one group is demanding that. You just have to be a journalist and look for the evidence. It’s there in plain site. Just this week, Kevin Feige said in an article from Rolling Stone magazine that Dr. Strange was taken out of WandaVision because he was a ‘white guy’.
“Some people might say, ‘Oh, it would’ve been so cool to see Doctor Strange.’ But it would have taken away from Wanda. We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie – ‘Here’s the white guy, let me show you how power works.”
In addition, when Batwoman was announced the show runners made it clear that they were looking for a member of the LGBTQ community to play the part of Kate Kane before any script was even written. Hollywood is openly making decisions about who is in their movies and TV shows based on the color of their skin, gender, or ethnicity rather than the quality of the talent. That’s a remedy for disaster for your franchises and your fans. The fans are what pay your bills and your outright telling the fans that you don’t care about what they want and instead choose to appease the people you hear screaming on twitter.
Good Storytelling Equals Good Movies
The fans aren’t going to see movie franchises like, Transformers, Superman, or, Terminator because the stories suck. The fans would happily see a new Transformers, or Superman movie if the stories at least stayed in line with the original characters intent. It’s not like there isn’t 80 years plus of material for Superman to go through to get a really good story. So, the fact that Hollywood is being diverse or inclusive on purpose, to set up “non-white talent’ to fail, has nothing to do with why fans are not seeing the movies. After so many years of horrible storytelling the fans are fed up. And then Hollywood says they are going to ‘reimagine’ characters so they can check off a box? Look at what they are doing to Superman. They are reimagining him as a Black man, set in a 20th century universe but still with the name Clark Kent/Kal-El. And, he’s being written by someone who actively believes in white supremacy. Tell me that movie is not going to be divisive. Warner Bros. is actively allowing a revered character, for generations, to tell half of its audience that they are white supremacists. Superman is white and has always been white since 1938. If Warner Bros. wants to have a Black Superman then
use Calvin Ellis and make an Else Worlds movie. Stop trying to reimagine established characters and get a little creative.
Hollywood Needs to Create New Characters and Stop Ruining Established Ones
Hollywood is devoid of creativity and fans not watching their crap is proof. If Hollywood wants its diversity and inclusivity in their movies then create characters that will fill that prescription for you. Taking established characters and changing them to make BLM, or the LGBTQ community feel good is not only insulting to those groups but demeans them as well. For example, making Falcon ‘Black Captain America’ insults the character of Sam Wilson and Falcon. Is Falcon not good enough? You have to make him a black Captain America to give his character meaning? It just doesn’t make sense. The fans just want quality storytelling of characters they have loved since they were kids. Just ask any Superman fan what the best Superman movie ever made was and they will tell you definitively Christopher Reeve’s Superman. And it wasn’t because of the color of his skin, his gender identity, or his ethnicity. It was because it was a well told story made by a director that cared about getting it right. Instead, today we have movie companies, directors, and show runners checking off their diversity and inclusivity boxes and prioritizing the agenda of what color the character will be before a script is even written.
Mr. Mendelson Fails to Understand the ‘Consumer’
Mr. Mendelson then cited Aquaman as an example of how diversity and inclusivity helped Aquaman be successful because a Pacific Islander was cast and it wasn’t a reboot. Aquaman succeeded because over half the audience was female and wanted to see Jason Mamoa with his shirt off. Mr. Mendelson continued with this statement:
“Consumers either don’t care about inclusivity or only care about diversity for films/T.V. shows they already want to see.”
You’re failing to understand the consumer here Mr. Mendelson. First off, we are customers not consumers. Hollywood doesn’t just want us to see their movies and TV shows, they also want us to buy product that is free advertisements for their IP’s. Secondly, the consumer, as you put it, doesn’t care about inclusivity and diversity at all. The reason the franchises that you stated in your article are failing is because the story being told makes the inclusivity and diversity the primary agenda rather than the story and the characters. Mr.Mendelson also stated this:
“Hollywood spent decades looking for the next Tom Cruise when they should have been looking for the next Will Smith.”
Why should they have been looking for the next Will Smith? I don’t understand the rational there. Couldn’t Hollywood have done both? And again, shouldn’t it be about the talent and not the color of ones skin that counts? Mr. Mendelson ended the article with this nugget:
“Nonetheless, it is almost cruel to wait until these properties are used up before *now* trying to offer a more inclusive cast and crew. An entire generation of non-white filmmakers is potentially being set up to fail because they are being tasked with fronting franchises audiences about which audiences no longer give a damn.”
Audiences don’t give a damn because Hollywood is producing crap and shoving their identity politics down our throats. This has nothing to do with setting up an entire generation of non-white filmmakers to fail because we are putting them in charge of used up franchises. Hollywood has done nothing in the last 5 years but condemn and blame the “toxic” fans for these failed franchises simply for having an opinion. These franchises are failing because of Hollywoods pandering to a minuscule portion of the population on twitter. A minuscule portion of the population that could care less about these franchises but care more about cancelling our favorite franchises in favor of their agenda. An agenda that Hollywood has sadly succumbed to and people like Scott Mendelson have fallen in line and helped support. Mr. Menedelson has served up a scapegoat for Hollywood to use as more and more of their franchises fail.
