As humans, we naturally have different beliefs, and we clash over them. We argue about what is right and wrong, over what is better and what is worse. But in the end, we move on because everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. That is the whole point of being a part of a democracy. However, in recent years, the nation has become more divided than ever over the differences between the Left and the Right. The battlefield between these two political ideologies should be in Congress and the debate stage. However, the war has shifted to our comics, games, TV shows, and movies. I am talking of course about the Culture War. The two sides of this Culture War are the conservatives and the left. Now before going any deeper, this is a hypersensitive topic, but this Culture War is a major reason for the decline in Hollywood. So let me preference this by saying that this is a critique on industry practices and trends, NOT an attack on any individual or group.

The Culture War has left numerous impacts on Hollywood and other media. These impacts have been the hardest in the hiring of directors, the writer’s room, casting decisions, and even in the translation of foreign media. Now these changes originally had a good intent by eliminating the prejudice that existed in media with the MeToo movement. Eliminating misogyny and racism from the workplace is crucial to allow a happy work environment, but there is such a thing in going too far in this quest. In each of these impact areas, I’ll try to explain the problem and how each side in the Culture War faulted and make the situation worse.

Let’s begin with the methods of selecting directors. Arguably the director is one of the most important roles in a production because they work with everyone: writers, actors, editors, etc. Their leading hands guide the projects to a conclusion that is best for the product. With that in mind, a director should be well versed in film studies and have years of experience before tackling a blockbuster. TLDR: a director should be hired based on merit, not chosen based on appearance. For Star Wars, a controversial decision that has split the fanbase is Lucasfilm’s hiring of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Now Obaid-Chinoy has won an Oscar for her documentary work in identifying inequality for women in Pakistan. Now this is to be commended because the abuse against women in the Muslim world is unacceptable and a documentary is the best place to highlight this. However, activism has no place in a Hollywood production. Now Obaid-Chinoy has other titles to her credits, including the Disney-Marvel show of Ms. Marvel. How well did that show do? Not well. In fact, under Obaid-Chinoy’s leadership the show had to undergo reshoots due to poor quality. Now how did Obaid-Chinoy go from an Oscar win to doing reshoots on a misfit of a TV show? Simple, she is on the record for saying that she never been to film school and her goals are to make sure her activism is in every product and to make men uncomfortable. Now conservatives have targeted Obaid-Chinoy personally, which is a big no for me. Never target the person or threaten them. Obaid-Chinoy accepted the role, which is a massive opportunity with a big paycheck; who wouldn’t take that job? The fault lies with Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm in their selection of the director. Star Wars is one of the most important IPs that Disney has, and allowing someone without film school experience and is vocal about injecting activism into their work is a red flag. It also doesn’t help that the media is praising the hire as the first time Star Wars’s direction is being led by a woman. But that isn’t true. Kathleen Kennedy has been making the decisions for Lucasfilm and Obaid-Chinoy isn’t the first woman hire for a Disney Star Wars product. Before her was Patty Jenkins (project dropped), Deborah Chow (Mandalorian), and Bryce Dallas Howard (Mandalorian). The difference is that these previous directors had proper experience. I respect Obaid-Chinoy’s work in documentaries, however, if you wish to keep creating works with activism infused in them, stick to making documentaries.

The biggest and most influential impact that Culture War has had on Hollywood is in the writer’s room. Writing a script is, in my opinion, the most important part of a production. Writing provides the lines for the actors, the scenery for the VFX and Production artists to make, and the final product directors and editors strive to complete. It all starts in the writer’s room. So when you are making a superhero movie or show and have never read the source material, that is a huge red flag! What do Jac Schaeffer, Eric Pearson, Mackenzie Dohr, Dave Callaham, Kaz Firpo, Jessica Gao, Ali Selim, Malcolm Spellman, Amy Rardin, and Marion Dayre all have in common? Yes, they each worked on a Marvel Phase 4 product, but more importantly, they all never reference or read the comics before writing their show or movie! Ten writers across multiple products! They were even told not to read the source material by Disney. They wanted to recreate the character for a ‘modern audience.’ That might be good in concept, however when dealing with a superhero, you don’t change their powers in favor for a checklist of diversity. Take Echo for example. Echo is a minor villain in a Daredevil comic who has an ability to copy the martial arts moves of her opponents, which is dangerous in the brawl focused environment where Daredevil often is. In her show, Echo has the ability to reach out to her ancestors and gain their powers. These don’t match. In fact, the Echo writers said her abilities were boring. In a show with the opportunity for tons of martial arts choreography, this power would be interesting! Instead, she gets something sloppy and made into a Mary Sue. Not to mention she only reaches out to her female ancestors, who also didn’t use those powers to help her people during the Trails of Tears. Many errors in continuity. I’m using Echo in particular because it highlights what Hollywood has become, a checklist. In the comics, Echo is a Native American woman. In the show, Echo is a deaf, amputee, Native American woman. Why were these changes made? To check off more boxes for the purpose of improving the DEI scale. What is DEI? It is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Former Writer’s Guild members have come out in saying that the Guilds have been heavily pushing every member to complete a survey which asks them their sexuality, gender, race, religion, disability, and even injury history and if they were homeless! Why is this necessary? One of these experience writers who told FilmThreat, a Youtube channel, that despite having worked on many successful shows, they weren’t getting offers to join more writers’ rooms because of his race. He goes on to say that the director didn’t select him because they were already too many white people in the room and said, “male and pale is getting stale.” Why did this writer reach out to a YouTube channel instead of a major magazine or publication? Because they are connected with the Writers’ Guild and were afraid of being blacklisted. Being canceled. Cancel Culture is a weapon that is essentially attacking those who don’t agree with them 100%. As the defenders of diversity and acceptance, this weapon is a bit hypocritical. The writers’ room needs to be a place where the best and the most skilled are invited to work, not hired based on how they rate on the DEI scale. If you are seeing a trend already, then the next impact will be more of the same.

Casting a group of actors for a production can be hard. Making sure their chemistry is aligned, clearing their schedules so they do not conflict with other projects, and balancing A-listers with newcomers is hard for any casting director. On top of these responsibilities, it is on every casting director to make sure the cast are the best choices to represent their roles. Selecting an actor should be based on their auditions of course, who did the best job for the role. Take the new Percy Jackson TV show. For the role of Annabeth, showrunners cast Leah Jeffries. Now the fanbase took this casting as a negative because the character is often depicted as a white, blond girl and they cast an African American girl. Conservatives sent death threats and other abuse towards the young actress. As with targeting directors, as I mentioned earlier, you don’t go after the individual, especially a young girl. From what I have seen so far, Leah Jeffries has done a wonderful job as Annabeth and understands the character. However, there is a difference between casting for a fictional character and a role based on real life. Two shows in particular made me raise my eyebrows and those are the Cleopatra and Anne Boleyn shows. These shows are controversial because black actresses were cast for the respected roles. Now I have a problem with this because both women in real life are historically recorded as not being black. Cleopatra was of Macedonian descent while Anne Boleyn was English. My main problem is that the shows were promoted as being historically accurate and praised the diversity. As someone who studied history, I’m sorry to burst the bubble, but history does not look kindly on diversity. Black people were not prominent in the British Royal Court. It bothers me when an actress from the hit show Bridgerton commented on the diversity difference between the real-life Royal Family and the show, saying that the difference is quite the whiplash. No shit. Would it be okay if Martin Luther King Jr was played by Ryan Gosling? No of course not! So why is history being rewritten? This is once again a plague of showrunners trying to chase after the ‘modern audience’ which only harms the show because it makes people roll their eyes in apathy.

Now while the West is being heavily impacted by the Culture War, other nations are not facing this as badly. These foreign shows, especially anime from Japan, are rising in popularity in the West. Of course, not everyone speaks Japanese and thusly the anime needs to be translated. The problem lies in how the anime is translated. Naturally the consumer would expect that the translation is as close to one-to-one as possible, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. The biggest culprit of this is Crunchyroll, the biggest platform of anime in the United States. Localization for Crunchyroll is led by Jamie Marchi, who has a history in voice acting. At first glance this is the right idea because a voice actress would have insight in the sound booth to help localizers, however, Marchi has enabled localizers under her command to change the content on purpose to meet the expectations of the ‘modern audience.’ At first glance these changes are barely noticeable, but they change the mood of the work. As a localizer, your job isn’t to change the work of the creator, but to translate it. The creator has a purpose behind each line of their writing to apply it to their themes. If the localizer objects to the theme or wording, I’m sorry but that’s too bad. It is up to the consumer to decide on what is appropriate because we are the ones who are buying the product. It doesn’t help that Marchi attacks fans for their opposition to her department’s actions. To be fair, Marchi has also seen viscous and toxic attacks which are unacceptable, but the valid criticism must be heard.

So, you may have noticed that the left are mostly at fault for all these impacts, and that is the case. The pursuit for Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion has dominated over the need for good writing and making a fun, entertaining product. The desire to spread DEI has created a sense of apathy amongst fans, and that has hurt Hollywood’s bottom line. The truest form of equality in the workplace is a meritocracy. The best is selected for the job, hard work should be awarded, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, or creed. This Culture War and the political strife has made us forget to be entertained. Entertainment and media are an escape, we want a safe place to be when the world around us decides to throw a curveball at us. For me, it hurts when I see a tweet on Twitter or a reddit post that says anyone who doesn’t like the sequel Star Wars films is a racist and misogynist. I made it clear that I disagree with the way of how the sequels were written and planned out. Or in the Doctor Who anniversary specials when this message is sent to all men, “we know everything thanks. And you know nothing. shame you aren’t a woman anymore cause she would’ve understood… something a male presenting Time Lord will never understand.” How else are men supposed to react but to be confused, angry, and upset? Now that’s not to say the right aren’t at fault either. People have to stop lashing out, threatening people, and using racist slurs. The left attack those who give criticism and gaslight them calling, them racists in attempt to cancel them. Cancel culture needs to stop, as well as racism and misogyny. This is an imperfect attempt to voice my concerns over the Culture War as this is a really hard topic to write about, but this is a conversation to be had. This Culture War has harmed everyone by destroying products we love and ending jobs. The only way this ends is when Hollywood goes back to making entertainment instead of making propaganda.