‘Fans are going to retaliate:’ Studios are creating superfan focus groups, and can we just not?

It is another day online which means another frustrating move by studios and outlets. According to Variety, Hollywood is battling “toxic” fandoms. Actually, you’re battling about 6 YouTubers you let continually drive a narrative who you refuse to call out. The response to the toxicity is frustrating.

Many of us have been repeatedly attacked by the same 6 accounts, parading themselves as “fans” of something and using their platforms to send hate to performers, real fans, and creatives. It has made talking about things like Star Wars, The Rings of Power, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe near impossible. And yet the real fans persevere and continue to talk about the things they love.

In Variety’s deep dive, it was revealed that there will be a new superfan focus group for projects that help studios know what fans will enjoy and what they won’t. Okay, cool, who are these superfans? If you tell me that men like Star Wars Theory are in a group setting telling Lucasfilm what works for this franchise, I might throw my laptop out a window. If someone like the Critical Drinker is talking about a franchise, you’ve made a mistake.

My point is that certain “fans” are not actually fans of the thing. They’re grifters who use the success of said property to get little minions to do their bidding. They think fandom is owning merch about something but misunderstand every single thing about a character. They’re not people you want to listen to.

According a studio executive, the idea is to just get the approval from fans on a project before it is finished. “They will just tell us, ‘If you do that, fans are going to retaliate’ … If it’s early enough & the movie isn’t finished yet, we can make those kinds of changes.”

This is a horrible idea all around

Fans don’t know what is best for a project. Sorry to say, that’s not how the creative process works. Joe from down the street who loved Star Wars as a kid is not the best source for what works creatively with something. Actual writers and actors know what works from a story standpoint. Bending to the toxic fans and making sure they’re happy is a surefire way of ruining the artistic value or something.

The reality is that these franchise have always had horrible fans attached to them. These new crop of YouTubers have always been there, thinking they know the most. They are the first men to say they got mocked for loving nerdy things. But they didn’t get mocked for loving nerdy things. They got mocked for being horrible people.

Giving a platform to “superfans” is dangerous. How do you know the people you’re asking are actually good-willed fans of something and not these grifters? Are you going to look through everyone’s history with a property and check their social media? What exactly is a superfan?

All this is doing is feeding further into these angry voices and giving them agency. They are not the kind of fans you want to cater to. They ruin franchises and mock real fans who like something. Maybe if we just stopped letting these voices overpower actual fans, we wouldn’t be dealing with this. But please, do not let “superfans” call the shots.