Some things in this world are just created for controversy. Not in the sense that that’s a creator’s goal, necessarily, but that the thing being created simply can’t exist without some level of “what the hell are you thinking” thrown at it by the public. Such is the case of Confederate. What? You don’t know about Confederate? Well, that’s not surprising. From conception to cancelation, the series hit every pothole along the way, from scathing online outrage to writers and producers too involved in other projects to focus on this one to simply the worst possible climate to announce the series. It isn’t often that you see a project go up in flames in such a spectacular way, so let’s take a look at the history of Confederate, the show that never was.
A Little Background on ‘Confederate’
Image via HBO
Confederate was the brainchild of Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, who originally wanted the story to be a feature film before realizing that a television series would provide more space to explore their idea. The series was announced on July 19, 2017, and production was planned to start in 2019 once Game of Thrones had ended. At the time of the announcement, the production team consisted of Benioff, Weiss, Nichelle Tramble Spellman, Malcolm Spellman, Carolyn Strauss, and Bernadette Caulfield, with Benioff, Weiss, and the Spellmans being the series’ writers. In addition, there was no script, trailer, or preview for the series at the time of announcement.
The plot of the series, as stated by Benioff, was inspired by a story about Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North during the Civil War, where his written orders had fallen into the hands of a Northern soldier and ruined his plan. Confederate was meant to explore what would have happened if those plans had never been found by the North and Lee’s invasion had been successful. The series takes place in an alternate historical timeline where the South had successfully seceded from the Union and thus slavery remained legal, creating a modern institution that has lasted leading into the events of the Third Civil War. The show was meant to tell the stories of a number of characters from both the Union and the South, including abolitionists, journalists, hunters, freedom fighters, slavers, and the enslaved. As of 2020, the show has been entirely scrapped.
‘Confederate’ Quickly Sparked Online Controversy
As with most things, it started on Twitter. When the show was announced in 2017, it received heavy backlash from the internet, and April Reign — creator of the #OscarsSoWhite movement — begin the #NoConfederate campaign on Twitter, stating that she lacked confidence in Weiss and Benioff’s ability to handle the show due to the lack of diversity and gratuitous sexual violence in their other series, Game of Thrones. Her concerns were voiced by many other Twitter users as well, with many of the critiques revolving around whether Weiss and Benioff were the right people to write and produce a show like Confederate and what purpose the series even had being made, with some calling the premise wish fulfillment for white supremacists and others saying there was no reason to depict modern slavery in a science fiction genre when the country being affected by the past wounds of slavery is very much a real issue. The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates eloquently states that last critique in his article “The Lost Cause Rides Again” by pointing out that Black people don’t need fictional stories to remind them that the history and effects of racism are still a problem in the modern world. In addition, Coates also voiced concerns about Weiss and Benioff writing the series when their previous projects have shown an inability to handle subject matter such as emotional trauma, abuse, and race. Though, Coates also points out that Confederate isn’t exactly breaking any new ground, either; plenty of films and shows that have come before this one — The Confederate States of America, Gods and Generals, Birth of a Nation — that explore similar alternate history timelines and continue to promote the Lost Cause fallacy. During the backlash, writers and producers Nichelle Tramble Spellman and Malcolm Spellman noted that they were often overlooked or added as footnotes to the discussion. They have said in multiple interviews that they were not props or shields for HBO or anyone else and that they’d had their own reservations upon hearing Weiss and Benioff’s idea and ultimately decided to join the project because they felt the show would benefit from having Black writers. The Spellmans, along with HBO CEO Casey Bloys, admitted that the rollout of the announcement was poorly done and did little to quell the rage it produced. After the announcement, Benioff and Weiss, along with the Spellmans, encouraged people to hold off on passing judgment until the pilot premiered. However, at this point, the public perception of the series was already bruised.
Political and Social Tensions Were at a High When ‘Confederate’ Was Announced
Image via YouTube
The announcement of Confederate came at a point of high tension, as well. The year prior saw Donald Trump win one of the most intense presidential elections in recent memory. The Black Lives Matter movement was continuing to gain momentum as reports of police brutality against Black people continued to increase. Every year, there are a number of reports on school assignments and textbooks that improperly, unethically, and inaccurately discuss and teach slavery and Black history in the United States. In addition to all of these events, there was also a significant gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia only a month after the announcement of the series: the Unite the Right rally. As this event took place, many pointed to Confederate as an example of the kind of media that encourages ideas of racism and white supremacy. It was described as white supremacist fantasy and slavery fanfiction, and many people became concerned that the series would only cause more intense hatred upon its creation and release. HBO did release a statement regarding this, saying that its team understood the sensitive nature of the project and would do everything it could to ensure that it was handled with respect. Though, HBO also asked that everyone reserve judgment until the show actually aired. Many criticized this response for including a call to halt judgment until the show’s premiere, saying it was a way to simply avoid negative perceptions and deter actual constructive criticism of the series. These criticisms were responded to by the Spellmans, who wanted to remind everyone that Confederate was not ever meant to be antebellum romanticism; it was meant to explore the way the past still affects the United States today.
The ‘Confederate’ Writers Soon Moved on to Other Projects
Though not as socially important as the other points here is the fact that Weiss and Benioff had to delay production of the series as they worked on Disney’s Star Wars trilogy upon the end of Game of Thrones. Shortly after beginning work on those films, they cut ties with HBO and signed a $200 million deal with Netflix, and by 2020, HBO officially scrapped Confederate as a project, as its original creators and producers no longer had any ties to the network. So, in the end, the cancelation perhaps had little to do with the online backlash and more to do with the staff of the project simply moving away from the company. Was Confederate a good idea? The consensus is no, at least for those who remember everything leading up to this point. It was truly a mess from start to finish. There was immediate criticism over the writers, two of which don’t have a great track record for handling the proposed themes of Confederate, and two who were often left out of the conversation entirely or put aside to make fun of Weiss and Benioff. There was a poor announcement that did nothing to quell concerns or take them into account and everything to stoke the fire of online anger. The announcement came before so much as a word of the series had been written and there was no trailer or any other product…
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
