Never Doubt The Power Of The Online Mob
In the age of social media, fans have more power than ever over art. If you need some examples, just look at how these films were altered by strong online backlash.
Sonic The Hedgehog
The look of the titular character in the trailer for the first Sonic The Hedgehog film drew instant online criticism for how ugly the character looked. This led to a delay in the film’s release date so that the VFX team had more time to fix the look.
Paramount, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Sonic The Hedgehog
In a happy ending, the new, cuter look of the character pleased fans and led to the start of a successful franchise. The key was just making the eyes bigger.
Paramount, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
When a reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand was announced, a slight twist on the formula was rumored too. The idea was that the turtles would be aliens from outer space instead of ninjas.
Paramount, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Drawing endless fan backlash, the extraterrestrial idea was soon dropped. Though the idea gets joked about in a throwaway line from the 2014 film.
Paramount, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Slender Man
Moral panics over horror movies seemed like a relic of the 1980s, but real-life tragedy impacted the final product of 2018 chiller Slenderman. It all had to do with the internet boogeyman of the same name.
Screen Gems, Slenderman (2018)
Slender Man
A 2014 attempted murder by two pre-teens in rural Wisconsin had garnered headlines due to them saying they were inspired by the internet creation of the Slender Man. When the trailer dropped, the father of one of the children convicted publicly protested, leading to the film being heavily edited to not offend anyone.
Screen Gems, Slenderman (2018)
Star Wars Episode II Attack Of The Clones
If you weren’t around in 1999, you might be unaware of just how deeply hated the character of Jar Jar Binks was. Many fans pointed to the goofy Gungan as single-handedly ruining The Phantom Menace.
Twentieth Century, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
Star Wars Episode II Attack Of The Clones
The overwhelming backlash from fans led to George Lucas making some heavy revisions to his plans for the character of Jar Jar. Initially envisioning him as a character who turned evil, he was relegated to mostly background appearances in the two subsequent Star Wars films.
Lucasfilm, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Ghost In The Shell
Scarlett Johannson’s casting in the 2017 remake of the anime classic Ghost In The Shell drew much in the way of online ire for whitewashing the role. The people behind the scenes were aware of the controversy but knew it was too late to drastically change the film.
Paramount, Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Ghost In The Shell
The rumor goes that the people behind the remake tried to digitally make Johansson more Asian appearing in post-production using VFX. Clearly, they knew this was a bad and potentially even more offensive idea, as it didn’t end up in the final product.
Paramount, Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Cats
When the first trailer for Cats dropped in the summer of 2019, it was instantly the stuff of legends. People widely took to mocking how horrific and comical the computer-generated human-feline hybrids that populated the film looked.
Amblin Entertainment, Cats (2019)
Cats
The film shipped to theatres was still full of incomplete effects work and was soon pulled to add things like fur to the creepy-looking human hands on many of the cats. Too little too late, as the film was still an instant joke.
Amblin Entertainment, Cats (2019)
Alita Battle Angel
The first trailer for the manga adaptation, Alita: Battle Angel, drew criticism for the digitally altered titular character having a creepy, uncanny appearance. The chief issue of attack was the appearance of her eyes, which were almost comically large.
Twentieth Century, Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Alita Battle Angel
The VFX team then went about responding to the criticism, altering the appearance of the character’s eyes in a subtle fashion. It may still appear creepy to most people, but it does look better than the initial trailer.
Twentieth Century, Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
The New Mutants
Delayed multiple times and then dropped in theatres during the middle of the pandemic, The New Mutants certainly didn’t get a fair shake from its studio. That being said, it seems like they were creatively unsure about what to do with this X-Men-affiliated movie in the first place.
Twentieth Century, The New Mutants (2020)
The New Mutants
The initial trailer for The New Mutants promised a horror twist on the usual mutant mayhem, which made the studio go about doing heavy reshoots to match that tone fans seemed to respond to. Unfortunately, the final product ended up a disjointed mess.
Twentieth Century, The New Mutants (2020)
Suicide Squad
Writer/Director David Ayer initially set out to make a dark movie centered around anti-heroes with Suicide Squad, but differing receptions to two comic-book films that came out in the first quarter of 2016 set the stage for how the film would be retooled.
Those two would be the surprise smash hit, Deadpool and the disappointing Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice.
DC Entertainment, Suicide Squad (2016)
Suicide Squad
With fans responding to the buoyant tone of Deadpool and shunning the grimness of the DC Comics showdown, the studio execs panicked and ordered quick reshoots for Suicide Squad.
Yet while the film was a blockbuster, most critics noted how disjointed the final product felt.
Dc Entertainment, The Suicide Squad (2021)
Hellboy
The less said about the 2019 Hellboy reboot, the better. Yet a controversy involving a role in the film did point to certain standards that needed to be rethought in Hollywood.
Summit Entertainment, Hellboy (2019)
Hellboy
Initially cast in the role of Ben Daimio, who was Asian in the source material, actor Ed Skrein decided to bow out due to not wanting to propagate the Hollywood whitewashing that people online were bemoaning. The role was eventually replaced by the Korean actor Daniel Dae Jim.
Summit Entertainment, Hellboy (2019)
Justice League
Zack Snyder’s Justice League was heavily altered due to the poor response to Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Thus writer/director Joss Whedon was soon hired to do reshoots and dramatically change the film’s style.
Warner Bros., Justice League (2017)
Justice League
At the end of the day, Whedon’s re-done Justice League was hated by critics and shunned by ticket buyers. Thankfully, Zack Snyder was given the chance to restore his director’s cut years later.
DC Entertainment, Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
The Interview
Largely forgotten today, the Seth Rogen comedy The Interview was an extremely hot-button movie when it came out in 2014. It allegedly even inspired North Korea to hack the Sony film studio to leak numerous emails from executives.
Columbia, The Interview (2014)
The Interview
Sony did its best to alter the film to not draw further ire from North Korea. Case in point, it made the death scene of Kim Jong Un dramatically less violent.
Columbia, The Interview (2014)
Ralph Breaks The Internet
This animated sequel attempted a bit of a Disney intellectual property bonanza by including multiple characters from across the company’s rich history. That being said, one area of that drew online ire.
Walt Disney, Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018)
Ralph Breaks The Internet
A scene in the trailer involving Disney princesses drew controversy when the first Black Disney Princess, Tiana from The Princess And The Frog, appeared to have her skin lightened. This was altered in the final product.
Walt Disney, Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018)
Army Of The Dead
The makers of the Netflix zombie film Army Of The Dead ran into some problems when comedian Chris D’Elia, who had been cast in a supporting role in, ran into misconduct allegations in the summer of 2020. Thus they had to alter the film to make sure hundreds of millions of people would still stream it.
The Stone Quarry, Army of the Dead (2021)
Army Of The Dead
The solution came to replace Chris D’Elia with another comedian, Tig Notaro, inserting her into all of D'Elia's scenes with computer effects.
The Stone Quarry, Army of the Dead (2021)
Fantastic Four
Comic book fans are pretty particular. Look no further than what happens when you try to change a character’s name.
Fantastic Four
The makers of the ill-fated Fantastic Four reboot from 2015 ran into trouble when they tried changing the villain Victor Von Doom’s name to Victor Domashev because it seemed less goofy. Fan outcry made sure that didn’t last too long.
Alien Covenant
Ridley Scott’s 2012 Alien prequel Prometheus was a big swing. All that being said, fans didn’t necessarily respond to how it sidelined the xenomorph in favour of making the gigantic albino engineers the primary antagonist.
Twentieth Century, Prometheus (2012)
Alien Covenant
Thus when returning to the Alien fold five years later, Ridley Scott made sure to put the xenomorphs at the centre again. That being said, Alien: Covenant was a box-office flop so it didn’t really help.
Twentieth Century, Alien- Covenant (2017)
Green Lantern
In 2004, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog creator Robert Smigel was tasked with writing a comedic Green Lantern script that could be developed as a star vehicle for Jack Black. Comic book fans wanting a serious take on the character quickly took to the internet to note their disapproval.
Warner Bros.,Green Lantern (2011)
Green Lantern
Fans got what they wanted, a space opera take on the character in 2011 starring Ryan Reynolds. A huge flop and punchline to this day, maybe the Jack Black iteration would’ve fared better.
Warner Bros.,Green Lantern (2011)
Star Wars Episode IX The Rise Of Skywalker
2017’s The Last Jedi ended up being a surprisingly controversial film for Star Wars fans. Some of the qualms extended with dashing the expectations set up by the previous entry The Force Awakens and others were by venomous trolls who responded poorly to the film’s diversity.
Walt Disney Pictures, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Star Wars Episode IX The Rise Of Skywalker
As a result, the final entry of the Skywalker saga tried to please fans, even the toxic ones, by setting the story back on course and also sidelining the woman of color character introduced in the previous entry. The Rise Of Skywalker ended up being by far the worst-received film in the new trilogy.
Lucasfilm, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Adipurush
A massive box office flop in India, this 2023 epic took as its source material the famed epic novel Ramayana, which had been adapted multiple times before. Thus, it carried the burden of enormous expectations–and it clearly crumbled under the pressure.
T-Series Films, Adipurush (2023)
Adipurush
Fans of the source material took heavy objection to the film’s dialogue, which allegedly simplified much of the original text and thus disrespected it.
As a result, the makers pulled the film from theatres and released a new iteration with improved, more accurate dialogue.
T-Series Films, Adipurush (2023)
Aladdin
Making a live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin was always a risk, as the colourful look of the film had the potential to look too goofy translated to another medium. That’s exactly what fans thought when the first trailer offering a look at Will Smith’s iteration of Genie dropped.
Aladdin
Filmmakers responded to the negative online reaction by toning down the look of the character, as well as offering more scenes of him in human form. The film went on to gross a billion dollars worldwide, so perhaps it was the right call.
