Toxic fandom has become an increasingly major issue over the past few years, with more and more people taking to social media to lash out at anything they perceive to be a problem with the particular franchise or movie/series they're invested in.
Being passionate is one thing, but lines tend to be crossed, and in addition to relatively harmless (though we're sure studio execs would disagree) practises such as review-bombing, actors/directors are often targetted for racist/sexist/homophobic abuse.
There's a general perception that studios don't really pay much attention to this sort of backlash, but this is not the case according to a new report from Variety.
“It comes with the territory, but it’s gotten incredibly loud in the last couple years,” says a veteran marketing executive at a major studio. “People are just out for blood, regardless. They think the purity of the first version will never be replaced, or you’ve done something to upset the canon of a beloved franchise, and they’re going to take you down for doing so.”
It seems major Hollywood studios (none are named, but we're going to go ahead and assume Lucasfilm is one of 'em!) are attempting to combat this negativity by putting "superfan focus groups" together to assess possible marketing materials for a major franchise project.
“They’re very vocal,” says the exec. “They will just tell us, ‘If you do that, fans are going to retaliate.’ If it’s early enough and the movie isn’t finished yet, we can make those kinds of changes.”
Apparently, studios will also put their talent through a social media boot camp, and if they feel that a character is "intentionally challenging a franchise’s status quo," they will even take over their social media accounts entirely. Security firms have also been known to scrub talent information from the internet to protect them from doxxing.
Taking additional steps to protect your actors from online abuse is admirable, but making major changes to your projects based on how a focus group believes a minority of fans will react does not sound like a very good idea.
There is always going to be a certain amount of negativity associated with every major franchise. You're never going to please everyone, so why not trust the creatives you've hired to work on these projects while also having a basic knowledge of the lore and source material to avoid making any unnecessary changes in the first place?
What do you make of this report? Be sure to drop us a comment down below.