I think one of the most prominent things to have come from this decade alone is the constant back and forth between the folks at Hollywood and the fans. After what Henry Cavill said in his interview, I wish many more within that industry would take his word and practice it.
From CW’s Batwoman, Ghostbuster 2016 to the remake of Charlie Angels, the sequel trilogy of Star Wars and the original foul version of Sonic design, Hollywood really seemed to be on a warpath to destroy every single thing it could get its hands on. To make matters even worse, when the fans of these IP spoke out, mostly critiquing what they’re doing out of the sheer passion for that IP, everyone in position of power that worked on that project from Hollywood dawned this very toxic attitude in belittling their opinions.
This was the common trend that transpired over the last few years. And it never made any sense to me. I mean, you want our money right? That’s the whole purpose of making remakes and re-changing well-established lores. It’s to make a quick buck! So why, in the name of all that is good in this world, would you piss off the core fans of the series? That’s why when Henry Cavill addressed the “toxic” fanbase debacle, it was a breath of fresh air from the constant ramblings of “the fans are just haters and wrong”!
In his interview with Jake Hamilton, he says:
“I understand what you are saying, but when it comes to fans, it is a fan’s right to have whatever opinion they want to have. People are going to be upset especially when you are talking about books or games because you are never going to be the exact person who they had in their head or who they played in Witcher 3 for example. I don’t necessarily consider that toxic; I just consider that passionate and it’s something that which I obviously had to come to terms with over the years.”
He gets it! Which is sad to say because is pretty common sense. He’s not defending the actual toxic people within every community, he’s defending the majority of fans who are just passionate about the things they grew up with. The ones who will pay the most for anything offered by the IP.
People rarely, if ever unanimously agree or disagree on anything, however, if a huge majority of people send their concerns for something or just don’t like the direction something is going, that should be an indication that you’re doing something wrong. Take the Sonic movie for example. I hope that in the next decade, we can move past this childish behaviour and unite. Oh, and actually come up with original stuff, that would be nice as well.
