Toxicity is running rampant in all corners of fan culture like never before. Gamers are angry that a real, historical Black man is the protagonist ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows, viewers were enraged at a coven of ‘lesbian space witches’ inStar Wars: The Acolyte, the mere idea of a woman inGhost of Yoteiis enough to ruffle feathers, and two women kissing in House of the Dragon caused user review scores to plummet.
This backlash takes the form of direct harassment, death threats, non-stop bigotry pouring out of every comment section, and incessant review bombing campaigns, all spurred on by content creators (read: grifters) who make a living stoking the flames of outrage.
Varietyspoke to several studio executives about these toxic fans, and they noted that “it’s gotten incredibly loud in the last couple years”. However, executives admit that “the vast majority of any fandom are casual fans”, and that this volatile subgroup has simply been given a “bullhorn” by the internet to blow into their respective echo chambers.
Because of that, the approach has long been to ignore them, but many are now putting together “superfan focus groups” who will tell studios if something will cause backlash so that they may avoid the toxicity altogether.
Thesefocus groupsare designed to assess marketing materials for major franchises, but one executive said that “if it’s early enough and the movie isn’t finished yet, we can make those kinds of changes.” So, studios are willing to alter films directly based on feedback to avoid any potential retaliation. This will not fix the problem, it will make it significantly worse.
This approach legitimises toxic fans. It concedes that if they are loud enough, we should listen. So, why would they be quiet? If studios are willing to make changes to the films themselves to avoid backlash, it tells the instigators that they can bully studios into doing what they want. Only instead offixing ugly Sonic, they’ll be removing queer kisses.
It doesn’t address the root cause of the problem. Toxic fans have always existed, one executive even said that they “don’t know that it’s really that much broader than where things were in 1995”. That’s not long before The Phantom Menace, a movie so hated that fans harassed child actor Jake Lloyd until he eventually quit acting. The difference now is that these voices are amplified by social media and, more importantly, platformed by content creators.
Those perpetuating this culture used to be shunned. They were embarrassing, treating franchises like flesh and blood, and so rightfully nobody took them seriously. But through YouTube and Twitch and other platforms of that ilk, they were able to voice their views and find like minded people, building entire communities around bigotry and hatred. This gave their ideas a platform, bolstering their confidence and amplifying their dogma so that it reaches and inspires even more people. What many learned from this is that outrage sells, which has only worsened the problem.
Plenty ofcontent creators and supposedly ‘cancelled’ celebritieslosing relevance have pulled themselves back into the limelight by adopting the ‘anti-woke’ stance, fighting a culture war that promises to line their pockets. Whether they truly believe what they’re saying or not, tapping into this market of fans who are so bitter and angry at their favourite franchises being ‘ripped from them’ works. But content creators are rarely held accountable for their role in these harassment campaigns.
Just look at StarWarsTheory, who recently made an entire video belittling Rey actor Daisy Ridley for speaking out against toxic fans. It puts the spotlight squarely on an actor who was so anxious filming The Last Jedi that she developed holes in her stomach wall (as reported byInverse). There’s no thought or care about what riling up an entire fanbase for views might do to the people they’re targeting, and certainly no repercussions.
A lot of the modern, toxic sensibilities stem from Star Wars. Fans refused to accept The Last Jedi, a film that wanted to challenge them and their preconceived notions of who their heroes are. Instead of engaging with the movie on its terms, they saw what Rian Johnson did with Luke Skywalker as a personal slight meant to insult and belittle them.
Fans, spurred on by content creators, drummed up hate campaigns as they waged a culture war directly against Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson, Kelly Marie Tran, and Disney itself. Before long, it bled out across games, movies, and television as a whole. But things only got worse when Disney legitimised these voices by walking back everything The Last Jedi did in The Rise of Skywalker, a by-the-numbers film that felt like a Reddit wishlist come to life, and ended up pleasing no one. As you can clearly see today, that mistake only made toxic fans all the more vitriolic.
Listening to these groups, and actively trying to avoid upsetting them, means throwing your cast under the bus and, ultimately, producing less diverse media. What sparks this backlash time and time again is easy to pinpoint. It wasa Black man in Assassin’s Creed Shadows,a woman in Ghost of Yotei (played by a genderfluid actor), a lesbian kiss in House of the Dragon, anda Black non-binary lead in Star Wars: The Acolyte. ‘Woke’ is a catch-all term for marginalised people, so the only way to truly avoid the hate campaigns led by toxic fans is to stop telling marginalised people’s stories altogether.
We’re already seeing studios give into the outrage, asIGNreported just last month that Pixar allegedly blamed Lightyear’s financial failure on a queer kiss,and that notes were passed during Inside Out 2’s production telling them to make Riley “less gay”. LGBTQ+ fans are already treated like invaders by fans, who see women as stomping on their boy’s club and queers spreading ‘propaganda’ across their favourite media. Actions like this by huge studios such as Pixar, under monoliths like Disney, tells them that they’re right, gives into their demands, and tells queer people that they don’t belong.
All of the progress made in representation and opening up fandoms to new, more diverse audiences will be for nothing if studios are scared to poke the hornet’s nest that is toxic fans. It’s not sustainable, it feeds into a culturebuilton outrage incapable of anything else, and only strengthens the worst, most hateful voices. The same voices that executives themselves are admitting are a mere fraction of these communities.
It’s a difficult battle for studios, choosing whether to fight or ignore bigoted fans who are constantly told by content creators to be angry, but the answer will never be to give in to them. They thrive on outrage, and meeting them on their terms cannot work if the goal posts are constantly moving. These focus groups are a disaster waiting to happen, because legitimising these voices will only make them that much bolder.
