Actors and Directors and Showrunners OH MY: How The Censorship of Hidden Agendas From Public Personalities Can Both Benefit and Hinder the Profit of Film

 Actors and Directors and Showrunners OH MY: How The Censorship of Hidden Agendas From Public Personalities Can Both Benefit and Hinder the Profit of Film

Hello Readers,

Its been a while since I last wrote something on the Film and TV review page, and this is because I have serious issue with the current state of Hollywood, most importantly the negativity i get when watching press tours and other videos that make me cringe in regards to mainstream Hollywood.

First of all I would argue that Hollywood has forgotten the meaning of entertainment for entertainment's sake, and therefore their need to challenge more and more pillars of society to focus on agenda is what is by proxy causing the downfall of current entertainment, however, it isn’t really the studios fault all the time and in this article i will discuss how certain shows such The Acolyte(2024) and Snow White(2025) never really had a chance.

The Rachel Ziegler Conundrum: Why Disney has lost their Audience

For years Stars who are in the spotlight have discussed their beliefs on politics, and their eccentricities, this is a function that has existed in  Hollywood since its foundation in the 1930’s, with stars who proclaimed outlandish bizarre quotes and supported their political views. However unlike in the past today's actors no longer have a studio owned press that just eats up and spins their eccentricities. The media today is so politicized that it is hard to escape instances of media or political toxicity that currently is enveloping American culture. Movie and TV stars now have plenty of mediums to discuss their views and have been given more power by doing so. These personalities no longer uphold the lifestyle of the classic hollywood movie star and many have become political agitators and Elitists and have deviated from the image of the humble stars who gave all their success to their fans. 

The Story of Snow White is a classic, it is a story of true love, of magic and Walt Disney created his in 1937, with love for his daughters and for the young girls of our country in mind, as he had with many films including and Alice In Wonderland(1951) and Marry Poppins(1964). Walt had a clear image of who his audience was and believe it or not it wasn’t just young girls or children. When Walt first created Disneyland he wanted to create a place where families(not only children) can play together and he knew that the little girl didn’t have the money to pay for his film but the parents did. Walt knew who his audience was and who was going to be watching his movie and this is where today's stars have lost their way. 

In an interview Rachel Ziegler, the Actress to be performing Snow White in Disney’s live Action Snow White Remake, bashed the original story, not only this but she also is quoted in calling the prince character “ a creep” “stalker” and that that this new snow white would be neo-feminist and be about what it takes to be “A Leader.” Statements like this  didn’t give the film a chance, to be criticized by fans and critics, as fans blew up over the media in regards to not only her statement, but the creative decision to cut Dwarves out of the movie and instead replace them with several random LGBTQIA+ individuals. 

According to my basic understanding of Film Theory, A films success is dependent on limitations to their challenge of the three pillars of society, those being: Race and Ethnicity, Feminism and Sexuality,Class and Economics.  A film can only be successful if it challenges one of the three pillars and not multiple of them. The original Snow White doesn’t challenge any of the pillars as it has nothing to do with Race or Ethnicity, or Feminism and Sexuality, but instead it challenges the bourgeoisie and has deep roots of Class and Economics. Snow White tells the story of a woman who goes from princess to poor to princess again by the end and is literally a Rags to Riches story to begin with. 

However because of Rachel Zieglers comments, the film was given two underlying Societal challenges, one being the classic rags to riches story but this time, it would be highly neo-feminist, which would break the true love story that people would have paid to go see. Not to mention the “Magical Creatures” that replaced the Dwarves, that were argued to be members of the LGBTQIA+, instead of dwarves, that Disney then retconned and made into “terrifying” CGI Dwarves after the set leaks and Rachel Zieglers comments blew up on the internet. 

The Acolyte and Black Panther: Why Hollywood needs to Stop Blaming Racism and Misogyny

This isn’t the first time A Film or series has come under fire because of a Star opening their mouth. The Acolyte(2024), was also judged before it came out because multiple stars within the Acolyte’s production team and Cast made bold proclamations calling the Acolyte “Queer” and for the cast being the most “diverse” Star Wars Project. This Sparked backlash  within the fan base, who wanted to hate it because before the series came out because there was a challenge to both LGBTQIA+ being presented and a Diverse cast, when Star Wars is a series that is about Class Struggle about Good( The Proletariat Rebellion) and the Bad(Bourgeoisie Empire), is this show the Proletariat however are Mae and Osha (both portrayed by Amandla Stenberg) and Qimir(Manny Jacinto) and the Bourgeoisie are represented by the Jedi. While the Show truly focused on the Socio-Economic battle(that has encompassed Star Wars since its A New Hope(1977), the remarks made by Showrunner Leslie Headland, Executive producer and President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy, destroyed the chances of this show’s success before it ever  aired.  This upset the majority of the base, unfortunately causing them to make more negatively taken comments by the fanbase, who’s main problem with the show was the fact that it seemed to be being created by people who hated or were not-knowledgeable about Star Wars as a Franchise. 

An instance of this comes from an interview with Cast Members including Charlie Barnett, who had become a meme within the Star Wars Fan community following the interview where he said “ Anakin Blew Up the Death Star” which bugged many fans, but not as much as it bugged some of the other Cast Members who seemed to realize his mistake. Then within the show itself, issues with canon arose if the Acolyte takes place in 132BBY (that is 100 years before Star Wars the Phantom Menace(1999) within the Star Wars Canon) then only certain characters should be able to make appearances within this series. One character in particular according to both Canon and Legends prior to the Acolyte, according to Wookiepedia(the star wars canon bible to most fans)was born in 93 BBY,that being Qi Adi Mundi(Derek Arnold), who is quoted of saying a specific line in the Phantom Menace about  “the Sith extinct for a millennium” who made an appearance in episode four “Day” of the Acolyte sparked outrage amongst Star Wars fans. The shills out there of course defended the Acolyte, while the die hard Star Wars fans were censored and not allowed to make their points to the public, being called names like “Misogynist” and “Racist” which had no bearing on their complaint, which was about a non-racial and non-misogynist issue.

It is my observation that if the Showrunners, and Cast just kept their mouths shut this show would not have been canceled and not renewed for another season, after receiving a lower audience score  on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes than most modern Star Wars Projects and Lucasfilm as well as the rest of Hollywood should take the hint that calling fans names isn’t the way to make money, it is a way to deter parts of the audience to return. 

A good example of the Cast understanding the Project is Black Panther(2018), which is regarded as one of the most successful Films made by Marvel in the last 10 years. What Hollywood will never tell you about Black Panther is that it is a film that is not about Race or Ethnicity in the slightest, and also isn’t about Gender or Sexuality. Instead the film is entirely about Class and Economics. The Cast may be 100% “white washed” Black Actors, but the film has nothing to do with Race and more to do with Class and Economics within American Society.  The success of the Black Panther Film is because the Actors, Director and Production Team all understood what the message was and who it was aimed towards, and because of this the film succeeded not only with the Black community,but also reached all other diverse groups with open arms as it is also a Rags to Riches Story, where the hero starts as a King, is challenged and loses his throne and then must retake his throne, with a major focus on family. The villain of this film in fact is Erik Killmonger( Michael B Jordan) who is portrayed as an Anti-White Racist Black Male Character who wishes to give weapons only to Black Men and take over the world, where T’chala(Chadwick Boseman) and Shuri(Letitia Wright) are open minded and wish to keep their weapons to only their people, but by the end of the film decide to share their technology with the world, not only based on Race.

The villain is someone we do not agree with morally, as Racism of any kind is seen negatively, by all audience members. The token white man of this film Everett Ross(Martin Freeman), is in law enforcement and is on the side of the heroes, who save his life and embrace him as one of their own within this film, where the heroes embrace Diversity, as American society does, but the film rather than being about Race focuses on Economics wanting to focus on giving Technology to the poor, of the world not just to a single race, after their king loses and regains everything. 

This is where the second film loses what made the first so successful. Wakanda Forever(2022), was about Race through the eyes of : Conquest,Genocide and Purity. In the first couple of minutes the film completely does a 180 reversal on the ending of the first movie, focusing on the vilification of Europe(France) at the UN summit. This film is a film about revenge against the colonizers and slave traders, ending a union of the Wakandan’s(Africa) and the Talokan(Native Americans), focusing on the past rather than on the present. These two groups utilize their hatred for others and it is in some ways a call for unity of those who were colonized against their colonizers.  This is most apparent when Shuri visits the Astral plane and is reunited with the ancestral spirit of Erik Killmonger, who represented hatred and war instead of T’chala, who represented love and unity. Once again their token white character Ross, is the only person who sides with Wakanda even committing treason(as a intelligence agent) to assist Wakanda in their mission

This film however also focuses on a Neo-Feminist arch, aside from the focus on Race. Shuri becomes Black Panther, and the nation of Wakanda when ruled by Women becomes more dangerous, and Namor(Tenoch Huerta) is perceived as a Toxic Male Figure/Misogynist who seeks to tell Shuri and her mother Queen Ramonda( Angela Bassett) what to do, in multiple scenes of the film, even threatening both her and Shuri in one scene when they were grieving for T’chala. M’Baku(Winston Duke), who is also perceived as a misogynist character is also limited in this film, disliked by all the female characters in the film and wanting war with the “fishman” instead of seeking peace.Not to mention the scene of them fleeing from the FBI and the Police. Another reason i would call it neo-feminist is because if it wasn’t Namor and Shuri would have had a romantic relationship, which is hinted at throughout the film especially in the beautiful underwater sequence, where Shuri is looking about the beauty of Namor’s homeland, but rather is just to emphasize the beauty of Talokan and nothing romantic between Namor and Shuri in the least. There is also a castration allegory when Shuri fights Namor in the films finale, where she chops off one of Namor’s wings, an allegory for the phallus based on Freudian film theory that suggest men are given power from the Phallus and thus Namors power is his wings in the fight and by taking one off Shur is castrating Namor.

 They also have a scene with Riri Williams(Dominique Thorne) where they mention that because she is both Black and a Woman she can’t be successful anywhere in the world, Shuri Mentions something about “the Elders” and Riri mentions her “professor” declining her project in this same scene.

The original Black Panther Box office Gross was1.344 Billion USD on a budget of 200 million while Wakanda Forever only Grossed 859.2 Million USD on a budget of 200-250 million. The reviews for Black Panther 7.3/10 with a metascore of 88 while Wakanda Forever 6.7/10 with a metacritic score of 67 on IMDB. 

The Difference between the Acolyte and the Black Panther Films is the group working on the project killed the acolyte before it was all released, if any of the actors or Director Ryan Coogler,  had said anything controversial before it came out this film would have suffered a similar fate to the Acolyte given how low the film grossed worldwide at the box office. 

Why Wokeism is a negative force for Hollywood.

The Three pillars of film have always existed and the challenges made must continue to occur implicitly within the creative process, however we are living in a world where politics have overwhelmed most americans, and the societal release valve(comedy) is under scrutiny due to the woke movement, cancel culture and the censorship of comedians and writers by a mob mentality. If this trend is to continue, with a push to force feed Americans Propaganda and to call it entertainment, the film industry will crash as Stocks for companies like Disney, Comcast(universal), Sony,Warner bros./Discovery, and Paramount Global will continue to decline. Hollywood would make more money if they returned to the classical hollywood method of storytelling and sticking to the theory of only challenging one of the three pillars per film, instead of making attempts to push agenda onto the public. 

At this time Hollywood Studios should return to an implicit agenda instead of making it straightforward as in doing so they have isolated their audience, as the intelligence of the film has now dropped tremendously,when it used to be in classical Hollywood where critical thought was inspired by the films of the times. 

I now leave a challenge to you the reader, think of your favorite film, what societal norms of the three pillars does it discuss? And what do you suspect would have happened if multiple agendas were included or if an Actor or person responsible told you their agenda before the film came out, would you still have wanted to see this film, or would you rather it just remain entertainment without understanding the theory and agendas behind decisions.