As midnight neared on Hollywood Boulevard, the fights broke out. Not real fights—lightsaber battles. It was May 18, 1999, and soon the doors of the Chinese Theatre would open for the first public screenings of the first Star Wars film in 16 years, The Phantom Menace. The premiere for 1977’s original Star Wars had taken place at this same theater, making it a sacred place for lifelong fans of George Lucas’s space saga. Many of the attendees had camped out on the street for weeks, which was the only way to guarantee access in the first-come-first-served era before advance ticket sales and assigned seats. I was on the scene to cover the opening night festivities for the Associated Press, and there really was a carnival aspect to it, like an intergalactic Mardi Gras.
People were elaborately costumed as Jedi and Stormtroopers, tall Yodas and assorted Leias, even though the movie they were about to see involved mostly new characters. At one point a different group of fans—dressed in Star Trek uniforms—arrived to stage a “counterprotest,” but the jeering exchanged then was seen by both sides as playful and comical. Everyone was in this together, enjoying the camaraderie. Even in my button-down shirt and tie, I was welcomed into this strange family. The reason so many people camped out for days or weeks wasn’t just about seeing the movie first. It was about sharing a love of Star Wars with each other. The party was the point.
Looking back at my AP story from that night, though, I see a moment of foreshadowing. A man who had painted his face red and black and glued horns to his head to look like Darth Maul, a character he could not have known anything about apart from glimpses in the trailers, engaged in a fearsome, slashing lightsaber duel with another man dressed in brown robes as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The horseplay (Force-play?) got so intense that Darth Maul accidentally clobbered the Jedi over the head, shattering his plastic laser sword. The breathless Sith warrior declared to the onlookers: “The dark side of the Force is winning!”
More than two decades later, during which time fan culture has become bigger, stronger, and far more contentious, those words seem prophetic, not just for Star Wars but for other franchises with epic fandoms such as DC, Marvel, and Harry Potter. Discord and division have become a problem for nearly every major studio. Social media is partly, if not entirely, to blame. It took a notoriously dark turn over the past half dozen years, and a new breed of fans evolved known as stans, a more relentless, excessive kind of admirer. Now every franchise deals with a subset of “fans” who see their devotion as a license to make threats, use racist and sexist language, and engage in Twitter dogpiles. Sometimes the negativity is fomented by influencers and media figures who want clout or clicks. But some admirers can also go radioactive if they don’t like the direction a story goes, or if an onscreen romance they’re hoping for never happens.
Event planners, publicists, and marketing experts have become like exasperated day care teachers, focused on encouraging sharing, reducing conflict, and isolating (if not expelling) the incorrigible troublemakers. Star Wars actors John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran, who endured years of hatred hurled at them merely for doing their part to expand representation in the galaxy, have openly pushed back on the haters. (As Boyega has tweeted, “I don’t fuck with you no more.”) Fan coordinators—who used to build hype by organizing events and sending out newsletters—now find themselves sparring with rowdy hordes online. What’s a franchise to do? “The loss of some of the movement is not as important as getting rid of the bad apples,” says a source who helps stage pop culture events. “Most of the big players would rather stay out of it, but they’re starting not to be so idle.”
In the past, franchises tried a hands-off approach with regard to toxic fans, thinking that feeding the trolls nourished them and that defending someone under attack could exacerbate the situation. But left unchecked, conflict can metastasize into abuse. The example cited by many in Hollywood is the following surrounding filmmaker Zack Snyder’s films for DC. That contingent cleverly lobbied Warner Bros. to release Snyder’s cut of Justice League but were soon overshadowed by a subset of fans who sometimes menaced critics and studio executives alike with violent words and imagery. Snyder, who had focused on fans who did real-world good deeds like raising money for suicide prevention, has denounced the bad actors to V.F., though the troll element remains.
Right now Hollywood is trying to nurture healthier followings rather than just growing them as large as possible. The fans don’t always have to like the movies, TV shows, or books, and they are welcome to disagree with each other. Debate is part of the fun. But the goal is to be more reasonable, and maybe even kinder. Getting older fans to drop their toxicity is trickier than ensuring new fans never travel down that path, so some are trying to teach “good fandom,” just like schools once taught good citizenship. In A Kid’s Guide to Fandom, Amy Ratcliffe teaches middle-grade students about conventions, cosplay, podcasts, and fan fiction, but also layers in themes of respect and assorted do’s and don’ts. A major don’t is gatekeeping. Some longtime fans have a misguided sense of ownership and discourage newcomers by saying, in effect: You don’t belong, but I do.
Ratcliffe notes that devotion to fantasy is often the result of people seeking escapism. Fans may have been teased or bullied when they were younger—and it’s human nature, unfortunately, to pass hurt on to others. “I’ve definitely encountered that attitude of ‘It was my own little thing, and now it’s so popular, and I’m going to be bitter about it,’ ” says Ratcliffe. “Specifically people are like, ‘I remember I used to go to Comic-Con, and Twilight ruined it, or all these Marvel films ruined it.’ Shouldn’t you be really excited that more people are discovering all these universes?”
Tunisha Singleton, a media psychologist who specializes in fan engagement, points out that professional sports have long dealt with toxicity in fandom and says standing up instead of looking the other way is vital. “I think a healthy fan diet can be made when the brand itself leads from the front and encourages fans to match their values with action,” she says. “If this brand is not about racism—if we stand for social justice, if we stand for civic engagement and positivity and/or Black businesses—then you can say that within the language of your brand and encourage positive behavior.”
Last year, when J.K. Rowling made divisive comments about trans people, Daniel Radcliffe and other Harry Potter stars disavowed her remarks, which may have helped hold the fandom together. “Celebrity influencers online can encourage responsibility,” says Singleton. “If you see something, say something. If the community is suffering, then we all suffer.”
Just seeing each other as humans again may also help. Several studio insiders blame the pandemic for worsening tensions, since the lockdown ended in-person gatherings like Star Wars Celebration, Comic-Con, and moviegoing itself, which fostered a sense of togetherness. Being online-only turns everyone into an abstraction, dehumanizing fellow fans. Text-based comments can be interpreted as more abrupt or combative than intended, escalating disagreements that would stay friendlier if hashed out in the epic line to Comic-Con’s Hall H.
Franchises are often about sparring heroes who transcend their differences for a common cause. That’s a message storytellers can learn from. “The more people who are into a thing, the more people you have to share your passion with,” Ratcliffe says. “In something like Minecraft, the more people who love it, the more cool stuff is out there for you to incorporate into your worlds. It’s important to tell kids, ‘Hey, the more, the better.’ ”
Message to Darth Maul: Be nice. Share your toys.
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