Protesters made #NoConfederate a trending topic on Twitter during the airing of tonight's episode of 'Game of Thrones'.
- Jul 31, 2017
AceShowbiz - HBO keeps facing backlash following announcement of new project "Confederate" from "Game of Thrones" creators and showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. During the airing of the new episode of the hit medieval series, many people took to Twitter to sound off their objection to the upcoming modern-day slavery drama.
While #GameOfThrones usually became a trending topic in anticipation of the show's new episode, tonight's episode was met with different reaction. April Reign, who started the #OscarsSoWhite campaign in 2015, asked Twitter users to tweet #NoConfederate to HBO during the East and West Coast broadcast of "Game of Thrones".
This Sunday at 9pm ET, during @GameOfThrones, we ask you to stand with us. We want to send a message to @hbo using hashtag #NoConfederate.
— April (@ReignOfApril) July 28, 2017
Reign also told CNN, "We would like HBO to cancel #Confederate and instead uplift more marginalized voices with a different series."
Responding to the organized Twitter protest, HBO says in a statement, "We have great respect for the dialogue and concern being expressed around 'Confederate'. We have faith that Nichelle, Dan, David, and Malcolm will approach the subject with care and sensitivity. The project is currently in its infancy so we hope that people will reserve judgment until there is something to see."
"Confederate" caused an Internet uproar due to its slavery theme. According to the network's description of the war drama, the series "chronicles the events leading to the Third American Civil War. The series takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution."
Benioff and Weiss said that the criticism to the new show was premature. "So everything is brand new and nothing's been written. I guess that's what was a little bit surprising about some of the outrage. It's just a little premature. You know, we might f**k it up. But we haven't yet," Weiss said earlier this month.
Meanwhile, HBO's president of programming Casey Bloys recently said at TCA at the decision to issue a press release for "Confederate" was "misguided." He stated, "If I could do it over again, our mistake - HBO's mistake, not the producers' - was thinking that we would be able to announce an idea that was so sensitive and require so much care in a press release."
