10 Recent Movie Choices That Pissed Off The Fans
Joker 2 flipped off the fans for over two hours.
Movie fandoms get a really bad rep these days, but is this warranted? Not necessarily. The issues of toxicity in certain fandoms - such as Star Wars, for example - have been amplified in the age of social media, but it should be remembered that such voices do not represent all fans, even if they are sometimes the loudest ones.
Furthermore, while some fan backlashes over the years have seemed wildly overblown, this isn't always the case at all. Just look at the following ten movies, all of which were attached to a pre-established and beloved IP. They all made errors that pissed off large swathes of their fanbases, and in almost all of the cases, the fan backlash was mostly understandable.
There are a couple of anomalies, but for the most part, it's easy to see why certain creative choices in these movies just didn't land with the fans, indicating that perhaps movie fandoms aren't so bad after all. This also serves as an important reminder to creatives: when working within a beloved IP, it's good to try something new but it's also important to respect what came before.
Kicking off with a certain prequel/sequel from Disney...
10. Mufasa: The Lion King - Scar Turns Evil Because Of A Crush
To its credit, Mufasa: The Lion King was not as bad as it looked. However generic its story was, it was still a splendid visual spectacle that director Barry Jenkins did a solid job with, and it was at least an improvement on the terrible 2019 remake it was following up.
Having said that, its story might have some fans angrily demanding "Justice for Scar!"
In his original iteration, Scar was quite possibly the greatest Disney villain ever, but sadly, he'd already been neutered in the remake, with the brilliant Chiwetel Ejiofor (perfect casting on paper, no less) giving an uncharacteristically flat vocal performance as him. Instead of solving this issue, Mufasa doubled down by writing a terrible new backstory for Scar - here played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. - where he turns on Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) because the lion he fancies falls for Mufasa instead of him.
This was a terrible writing decision that made Scar look like a wimpy incel, rather than a character who would one day become the villain who broke hearts the world over by murdering his own brother. Speaking of which, Mufasa and Scar aren't even brothers in this version, they're adoptive siblings, which is another change that retrospectively undermines Scar.