According toa recent Variety story, movie studios are moving beyond traditional focus testing for their franchise movies, instead opting to “assemble a specialized cluster of superfans to assess possible marketing materials for a major franchise project”.
“‘They’re very vocal,’ says [a] studio exec. ‘They will just tell us, “If you do that, fans are going to retaliate.”’ These groups have even led studios to alter the projects: ‘If it’s early enough and the movie isn’t finished yet, we can make those kinds of changes.’”
Hollywood Is Abdicating Creative Responsibility By Turning To Fan Councils
This is one of the most depressing things I’ve read about the current state of Hollywood filmmaking. Can you imagine being a filmmaker, who cares more about their movie than anyone, being told that you can’t make a certain choice because a council of self-identified superfans has deemed it unpalatable? Can you imagine getting your dream job as an actor, and then being dropped from the part because franchise obsessives have determined that your race, gender, or sexuality might prompt retaliation? It’s a disgusting development, the kind only a Hollywood short on ideas and high on fear would put forward.
But having watched plenty of recent Hollywood blockbusters, it also isn’t surprising. The biggest movies often feel like they’re made by committees and/or cowards – none more so thanThe Rise of Skywalker, the sequel to the movie that the Variety article credits as kickstarting review bombing, a key weapon of toxic fandoms. That movie felt like it was hacked to bits, but also like there was no real vision there to begin with. It was 142 minutes of damage control, and its palpable cowardice, manifested in its failure to make any remotely interesting decisions, led to it becoming thelowest-grossing film of the sequel trilogy.
Though artlessly giving the fans exactly what they want can pay dividends (see:Spider-Man: No Way Home), it also isn’t a guarantee. The Last Jedi might have been controversial, but it made a helluva lot more money than cameo-fest The Flash, suggesting that audiences respond to an artistic vision, despite the protests of the loudest subset of the audience.
Most Fans Aren’t Getting Angry Online
And that’s the issue here. As the Variety piece acknowledges, these companies are attempting to avoid angering fans, but the vast majority of a property’s audience will never review bomb a movie, send racist comments to a marginalized star, or generally be noisy pricks online. The bulk of the audience is made up of casual fans who don’t care that much about lore consistency, and by bowing to a council of mega-nerds who are worried about being ultra-faithful to everything that came before, these studios are painting themselves into an increasingly niche corner. Do you want Star Wars to make money and have a broad fanbase? Or do you want to avoid the slimmest possibility of making loudmouthed YouTubers angry? You can only pick one.
Deadpool & Wolverine, interestingly, leaned into the biggest critique diehard fans had going into the movie. Anyone upset that Deadpool 3 was desecrating Logan’s grave by bringing Wolverine back was treated to an opening sequence where Deadpool did literally that, digging up Captain Canada’s adamantium bones for a dance fight set to NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye. Deadpool steered into the skid, and reaped the rewards.
That strategy won’t work for every movie because Deadpool is Deadpool. His audience expects irreverence so, by pissing on Logan’s legacy, he was still giving them exactly what they wanted.
The thing is, though, if you asked a council of Deadpool fans to come up with gags for the movie, they likely would have said that Deadpool 3’s opening would have gone too far. I don’t think Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds are daring artists (and honestly, this is probably the only time you’re gonna hear me praise Deadpool & Wolverine), but they made a more interesting choice than fans would have. Fandom, by its nature, is ultra-conservative, more concerned with preserving the nostalgic status quo than attempting anything remotely new. Audiences want the familiar, but they also want something fresh. This development will lead to even more cameos, but it won’t lead to better movies. More concerning for Hollywood, I don’t think it will result in more money either.
