Last night while scouring Twitter for the best reactions to Daenerys' "last Targaryen" comment, you may have noticed the hashtag #NoConfederate trending number two right behind Game Of Thrones. Well, HBO noticed too, and the network has issued a response.
A few weeks ago, HBO announced that the Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were developing a series called Confederate, which will explore what the U.S. might look like if the South had won the Civil War, and slavery had never ended. After the news came out, a group of Black women created the #NoConfederate hashtag and asked people to tweet it during last night's GOT episode in hopes of showing HBO they're unhappy with this new show. The network seems to have gotten the message, however it still doesn't have plans to abandon Confederate.
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HBO released a statement Sunday in response to #NoConfederate, saying, "We have great respect for the dialogue and concern being expressed around Confederate. We have faith that [writers] Nichelle, Dan, David and Malcolm will approach the subject with care and sensitivity. The project is currently in its infancy so we hope that people will reserve judgment until there is something to see."
Last week, in an interview with Vulture, Benioff, Weiss, and the other two writers, Nichelle Tramble Spellman and Malcolm Spellman, gave their own response to the backlash surrounding Confederate. Specifically Weiss explained, "It’s an ugly and a painful history, but we all think this is a reason to talk about it, not a reason to run from it. And this feels like a potentially valuable way to talk about it." So, as of now, despite an overwhelmingly negative response to the announcement of the new show, the showrunners, writers, and HBO still appear to stand behind Confederate and plan to continue to move forward with the project.
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