The first trailer for Titans hit the internet last week. Days later, series star Anna Diop disabled comments on her Instagram reportedly over harassment she’s received. Now, Paul Feig is showing his support for Diop and asking comic book fans to take a stand.
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Comic book fan community: You have to loudly denounce these racist trolls who make these attacks. They do not represent the fan community and the fan community cannot allow itself to get painted with this brush when it’s such a small number of hateful people doing this. Stand up. https://t.co/ZlRmgpZq8O
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) July 25, 2018
In a Twitter post earlier today, the director whose credits include Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids, asked fans to “denounce these racist trolls” not just in the case of Diop, who plays Koriand’r/Starfire in Titans, but all those being attacked.
“Comic book fan community: You have to loudly denounce these racist trolls who make these attacks,” Feig wrote. “They do not represent the fan community and the fan community cannot allow itself to get painted with this brush when it’s such a small number of hateful people doing this. Stand up.”
While the idea of actors and creators — particularly those who are non-white or female — receiving backlash and harassment on social media from so-called fans — has sadly become all too routine in the universe of “geek” entertainment, Diop’s situation may be the most recent. Earlier this year, a series of leaked set photos provided the first look at Diop in costume. While the photos included Diop’s Titans co-stars as well, she specifically received backlash for not being “comic accurate” — in the case of a Starfire, that means an orange-skinned alien.
Diop spoke out about the hate shortly after, posting on Instagram that the photo was “out of context and it’s a misrepresentation of the incredible character I get to play.” While there weren’t many glimpses of Diop’s Starfire in the Titans trailer, they were improvements over the leaked set photos. However, that appears to have only gathered further racist and sexist comments about Diop’s casting as Starfire.
However, there are those who are sticking up for Diop with many sharing various positive messages and general goodwill on social media. It’s that kind of positivity, as well as outright calling out racist trolls, that Feig encouraged in a follow-up to his original tweet. After someone replied to his original tweet that they didn’t feel comfortable even giving the trolls attention in any form, Feig went even further. He said that by denouncing haters, the media would shine a light on the true fans and what they really stand for.
“Yes, but the media is going to keep doing it and so odds are they’ll also cover the true fans denouncing the racists if enough people speak up,” Feig wrote. “But staying silent can no longer be an option if you don’t want the whole community to get unfairly painted with this brush by the media.”
What do you think about Feig’s comments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Titans will debut this fall on DC Universe.
