Twitter Eviscerates HBO's Plan for a New Show Called 'Confederate'
Will the backlash be enough to make HBO rethink the series?

On Wednesday, HBO announced that it’s developing a new series called Confederate, written by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and coming at the earliest in 2019. The show takes place in an alternate reality in which the Confederacy won the Civil War and enslavement “remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution.”
Dystopian alternate histories can be great settings for fiction; The Man in the High Castle and Watchmen come to mind as two examples. But as the Twitter reaction to HBO’s news indicates, many people doubt that this series will be similarly effective.
Folks brought up a range of concerns about the show. Many were skeptical that two white men — and especially Benioff and Weiss, who designed Game of Thrones to be an overwhelmingly white world — would handle the material appropriately.
It is exhausting to think of how many people at @HBO said yes to letting two white men envision modern day slavery. And offensive. https://t.co/xsxWJ6FHUv
— roxane gay (@rgay) July 19, 2017
Like even if Confederate is critical of current day racism, do we need another series about the suffering of POC, written by white men?
— peat ape (@kamilumin) July 19, 2017
give me the confidence of white showrunners telling hbo they wanna write slavery fanfic
— pilot (@pilotbacon) July 19, 2017
Predictions circulated about various offensive plot lines the white creators might come up with.
i can't wait for the series finale of "CONFEDERATE" where a white girl named "Joanne" fires the bullet that Ends Slavery For Real This Time
— darrylayo (@darrylayo) July 19, 2017
if hbo is really going to make a godawful show about confederate slaves in an alt-2017 let me save you the trouble here is what happens pic.twitter.com/u5ycC5t2IS
— DOCFUTURE (@topherflorence) July 19, 2017
Many people felt that this show, which will undoubtedly be full of brutal depictions of racism, is particularly ill-suited for our political moment.
instead of a show about slaves what about a show where michelle obama tells us everything is going to be ok for an hour every sunday
— Ziwe (@ziwe) July 19, 2017
Nobody needs a series about a world in which the confederacy wins. Reality today is enough.
— deray mckesson (@deray) July 19, 2017
Others felt that the show will be incorrectly insinuating that the Civil War resulted in equality for black Americans by presenting a society that oppresses black people as a fictional, alternate history.
I for one can't imagine an Alternate History where there are monuments to Confederate leaders all over America.
— Sigh Hersh (@Ugarles) July 19, 2017
How is @HBO showing an "alternate timeline" when the current prison system requires thousands of black people to work with no pay?
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) July 19, 2017
People of color are already inadequately representated on television, so many folks would rather get a show that portrays empowered black characters — maybe an alternate Civil War history that ends in more equity, not less.
I'd like an HBO series about slavery ending and ex slaves actually receiving reparations, 40 acres and a mule.
— Beeedddeee (@beeline26) July 19, 2017
Would LOVE an alternative reality that explored what American life would be like if the #AmericanRevolution ended slavery. pic.twitter.com/BWASLKirrP
— Parting Ways (@partingwaysmass) July 19, 2017
Maybe this backlash will be enough to convince HBO to rethink the show. After all, they don’t plan to begin production until after Game of Thrones wraps up in 2018, so they’ve got at least a year to think this over and percolate in the outraged firestorm.