It has never been a better time to be a movie nerd thanks to the rise of comic book movies and blockbuster franchises over the past decade. But the increasing number of franchise and comic book movies have come with an increasingly toxic fan culture.
With fans reaching for their plastic Wolverine claws at any little infraction on ‘their’ property, it appears that we’ve hit a crucial moment in the film industry, according to director James Mangold.
The director of Logan – one of the most acclaimed comic-book adaptations of recent years – shared his concerns on Twitter about the state of fandoms in 2018, writing that the quality of franchise films will drop like a stone as creative people will be driven away from anything to do with blockbusters if the current trend of fan harassment continues to happen.
(He’s not pulling this from nowhere – Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of The Usual Suspects and director of the two most recent Mission: Impossible films, recently said he would have been interested in directing a Star Wars film until he experienced how toxic the fans could be.)
Mangold definitely didn’t pull any punches, comparing the behaviour to religious attacks that carry an ‘evangelical ferocity.’ When you’re lumped with religious fanatics, you know that something is seriously wrong.
At the point when work writing & directing big franchises has become the emotionally loaded equivalent of writing a new chapter of The Bible (w/ the probable danger of being stoned & called a blasphemer), then a lot of bolder minds r gonna leave these films 2 hacks & corp boards.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 5, 2018
The fervor of some attacks has an evangelical ferocity. Now, I get it cause for many folk, including me, the SW saga holds tremendous spiritual power, similar to a religious text. But we must remember to try to handle our disappointments the way Yoda might, as opposed to Darth.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 5, 2018
Coming off the heels of that terrible Kelly Marie Tran Instagram episode where she was forced to leave the platform due to harassment from horrible Star Wars fans, Mangold’s tweets are ominous and should definitely not to be taken lightly.
Toxic fans of franchise blockbusters are like of the incels of the movie industry, approaching the films they supposedly love like the girlfriends incels believe they deserve: they think they’re entitled to exactly what they want in the exact form they want it, and lash out when they don’t get it.
Sure, you may not have enjoyed The Last Jedi, but there are better ways to express your frustration than harassing a cast member so much that she leaves Instagram, bombarding director Rian Johnson with critical tweets, or ‘threatening’ to remake the entire film.
There’s being passionate about something, and there’s letting that passion fester into rage and turn you into a terrible person. And the line between the two isn’t as thin as what the movie incels may think.
The lack of self-awareness and basic human decency from certain fans is so astounding that I actually want to see these fans “succeed” in remaking The Last Jedi. The giddy feeling of schadenfreude aside, maybe it’ll finally open their eyes to their own behaviour.
And you know what, Mangold is completely right about the current state of overzealous fandoms. Who would want to make a movie for those people?
The dilemma is probably best described by David F. Sandberg, director of the upcoming DC film Shazam! – a movie that will likely give you whiplash from the fan response.
It will be an interesting experience making a movie where no matter what choices are made there will be some who passionately hate you.
— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) October 24, 2017
Several directors have left franchise movie projects at DC, Marvel, and Lucasfilm due to ‘creative differences’ but you can’t help the sneaking suspicion that the thought of pandering to an overly judgmental fandom isn’t helping matters.
With creative people with innovative ideas being scared off from interesting franchise movies, those same films will gradually be made by the ‘corporate hacks’ that some have accused directors like Johnson and Mangold of being.
If you feel that is the case, if u feel the film makers are just corporate tools and powerless, then why bitch at us? In the case of @rianjohnson and @chrismcquarrie, i assure you these cats are not “owned”. They actually fight your battles behind the scenes.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 5, 2018
When the suits start to dictate the creative direction of blockbusters even more than what they’re doing now, those who whinged about The Last Jedi being disappointing will be the exact same people complaining about how there’s no creativity or innovation left in Hollywood.
And the sad thing is, those same people will be so self-absorbed that they won’t be able to tell what kind of vicious cycle they’ve put themselves in.
Right now, the film industry is dangerously close to slipping into a pattern: toxic fans whinge, filmmakers cave to demands, fans continue to whinge, feelings get hurt, fan harassment of some kind happens, and more whining.
Arnie would be so disappointed in you.
So, nerds and fans, if you want to have your cake and eat it as well, then now’s the time to weed out all the bad eggs. Because while picking holes in Hollywood adaptations of your childhood faves is a time-honoured tradition, you can only pick so many before you have nothing left at all.