• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GoT Showrunners new project, Confederate, what if slavery never ended

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
[TheWrap]

After “Game of Thrones” wraps up, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will continue onto their next project for HBO — an alternate history series called “Confederate,” the network announced Wednesday.

Benioff and Weiss will executive produce the series, which exists in a fictional timeline where the South succeeded in seceding from the Union. In this version of the United States — or what’s become of it — slavery has remained legal and has continued into the modern era.

The story takes place during what’s called the Third American Civil War and follows a group of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, now a demilitarized zone. The groups the characters belong to are vast and include freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists and others. One specific group are the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families they control.

Yes, let me stretch my mind grapes and imagine if slavery had never ended...

[TheAtlantic]
 

wandering

Banned
I'm sure they'll handle it with the same level of tact and grace as in GoT...

Mhysa.jpg
 
Someone posted a YouTube video of life in the modern day if the south had won. It wasn't particularly well produced. I'm not even sure what it was for.
 

ValfarHL

Member
Seems HBO gets some serious backlash for this..
https://www.google.no/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/money/2017/07/19/media/confederate-hbo/index.html

I don't really get it..? Both 12 years a slave and Django are hugely successful movies about slavery, which didn't garner any backlash like this?
Der Untergang is another example, albeit a different theme.

Its a sensitive issue yes, which story must be handled with taste and care.
Who's to say the creators can't handle it as such?

Should we not create media based on horrific events and history?
 

Betty

Banned
Seems HBO gets some serious backlash for this..
https://www.google.no/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/money/2017/07/19/media/confederate-hbo/index.html

I don't really get it..? Both 12 years a slave and Django are hugely successful movies about slavery, which didn't garner any backlash like this?
Der Untergang is another example, albeit a different theme.

Its a sensitive issue yes, which story must be handled with taste and care.
Who's to say the creators can't handle it as such?

Should we not create media based on horrific events and history?

This is alternate history though.

It's basically fan fiction.
 
I don't think either of them have the deft touch or consideration necessary to have this not be a total wankfest, especially looking at the changes they've made adapting GoT.
 
Seems HBO gets some serious backlash for this..
https://www.google.no/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/money/2017/07/19/media/confederate-hbo/index.html

I don't really get it..? Both 12 years a slave and Django are hugely successful movies about slavery, which didn't garner any backlash like this?
Der Untergang is another example, albeit a different theme.

Its a sensitive issue yes, which story must be handled with taste and care.
Who's to say the creators can't handle it as such?

Should we not create media based on horrific events and history?
It's one thing to cover slavery in the past, it's another to create a show on if slavery never ended, especially in this current climate.

I don't think it's all that surprising that some people would be against it.

I don't watch GOT but apparently all the black characters are either bad guys, slaves/destitute or nonexistent. So a show about how if slavery never ended from the same creators will automatically not sit right with some people.
 

Dynasty

Member
Love alternate history, hopefully they tie the confederate flag heavily to slavery. This reminds me I need to get back on The Man in The High Castle
 

Lifeline

Member
Amazon: What if Nazis won

HBO: What if the confederates won

I wonder which villainous side is going to win a war for Netflix.
 

McBryBry

Member
This is alternate history though.

It's basically fan fiction.

I don't see it that way at all. Man in the High Castle did alternate history with Nazis and that was awesome. I'm hoping for the same kind of experience with this. Sure some might worship it since they're insane, but I have a strong feeling slavers aren't gonna be the good guys.

Love alternate history, hopefully they tie the confederate flag heavily to slavery. This reminds me I need to get back on The Man in The High Castle

Exactly this!
 

Jakoo

Member
Amazon: What if Nazis won

HBO: What if the confederates won

I wonder which villainous side is going to win a war for Netflix.

"In a future, where Pineapple on Pizza is mandatory...."

I am wondering if this is the television adaptation for Underground Airlines as apparently Ben Winters wrote a pilot for it.
 

Faiz

Member
Alternate history where "the bad guys won" is a trope with a long.... history.

It can be done well, it can be done poorly.

Current climate feels like the wrong time to go there, though, and the possibilities of where the conversation around the show will go leaves me a little nauseous.

Edit: you can already see it in this thread calling it "slave fan fiction".
 
It's one thing to cover slavery in the past, it's another to create a show on if slavery never ended, especially in this current climate.

I don't think it's all that surprising that some people would be against it.

I don't watch GOT but apparently all the black characters are either bad guys, slaves/destitute or nonexistent. So a show about how if slavery never ended from the same creators will automatically not sit right with some people.
Not sure it's a show I'll watch personally, but as long as the main character (and a good chunk of the side characters) is from the slave's perspective I think it could work.

Man in the High Castle is mostly about the ongoing fight against the Nazis, not "hey, look how cool this all is." Or Handmaiden's Tale being about the creation of a literal rape culture and being 99% from the perspective of the victims.

Execution is obviously what will matter in the end, and with GOT having some obviously cringe race stuff in it I'm not filled with a ton of confidence, but maybe they'll learn from it.
 
When George ain't around, the showrunners get to really express themselves.

And I am not surprised a "fucking with black people" ass show is what came out of it.


As for Man in the High Castle, there is a very certain cultural context that makes this different.

And ask most MitHC fans who their favorite characters are. It's usually either the Japanese guy or the Nazi.

I don't want the same here.
 

RRockman

Banned
Amazon: What if Nazis won

HBO: What if the confederates won

I wonder which villainous side is going to win a war for Netflix.

Whoa, Wolfenstein is getting adapted?

Tbh I really wouldn't mind a story of if the confeds won the war if it was handled like Wolfenstien. Wasting Klan members and getting the resistance together sounds like it would be plenty of fun.
 
I'm not sure how I feel about this. D&D aren't exactly subtle, and this would be a tightrope walk for even the most thoughtful creative minds.

I wish HBO would invest in something like Underground. An HBO-quality historical series about the American Slave Trade and Civil War is something the public could probably benefit from right now.
 
Maybe this time around black characters will have more positive portrayals and more than just slaves. More like Birth Of A Nation.
 
Not sure it's a show I'll watch personally, but as long as the main character (and a good chunk of the side characters) is from the slave's perspective I think it could work.

Man in the High Castle is mostly about the ongoing fight against the Nazis, not "hey, look how cool this all is." Or Handmaiden's Tale being about the creation of a literal rape culture and being 99% from the perspective of the victims.

Execution is obviously what will matter in the end, and with GOT having some obviously cringe race stuff in it I'm not filled with a ton of confidence, but maybe they'll learn from it.

I wouldn't get my hopes up. If this was an Ava Duvernay or Steve McQueen led project I could maybe give it the benefit of the doubt. Coming from the GOT creators? Nah don't see it.

I'm cynical on this kind of stuff, so I can almost be certain it will probably have a major "white savior" type angle.
 

E92 M3

Member
Amazon: What if Nazis won

HBO: What if the confederates won

I wonder which villainous side is going to win a war for Netflix.

Man in the High Castle was fantastic and had me liking some of the Nazis - and I'm a Jew. I would love to see more shows like that. Of course, the writing, characters, and story have to be solid.
 
Man in the High Castle was fantastic and had me liking some of the Nazis - and I'm a Jew. I would love to see more shows like that. Of course, the writing, characters, and story have to be solid.

And this is why some folks don't want this show right now in this political climate.

There is not the same level of agreement that the Confederates were the bad guys to make this as palatable as WW2 alt-history.

Nazi flags don't fly in numbers, Nazi statues don't stand in numbers.... Confederate shit does.
 
Yeah, but it's all fiction - I'm consistently cheering for well-written antagonists. I am not a fan of generic hero characters.

Nah man, America in 2017 just got won by racists... this isn't "all" fiction.

There is no need for shows that make you emphasize with horrific racist white supremacist slave owners
 

E92 M3

Member
Nah man, America in 2017 just got won by racists... this isn't "all" fiction.

There is no need for shows that make you emphasize with horrific racist white supremacist slave owners

As an American, I think studios can make whatever type of show they want and let public decide if it's worth it or not. Creators should be completely free to do whatever they want - whether I agree with them or not.
 
They should make a show where black people flip the script and become the slave masters if they really wanted to fuck with people.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Why can't an we have slavery reversed, where other black people instead of whites in charge.

Woah now, we don't want to get too alternate with our histories! Next you're gonna say Jesus wasn't a ripped white guy with great hair.
 
As an American, I think studios can make whatever type of show they want and let public decide if it's worth it or not. Creators should be completely free to do whatever they want - whether I agree with them or not.

Weird I missed the part where I said they should be legally barred from making it...

Spare me this rah rah freedom nonsense
 
Top Bottom