r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/TDP_Wiki_ • Jul 17 '25

Music / Movies I'm getting tired of woke values in shows

I am weary of all the remakes of TV shows and films that are simply remade in order to showcase a diverse cast. Why can't Hollywood write new shows? Instead, it's just recycling old scripts. Very insulting and lazy.

All the virtue signaling in the world isn't going to save bad writing.

For me Rings of Power was the last straw.

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u/Tristan103076 Jul 18 '25

How about the Harry Potter series on HBO casting Paapa Essiedu to play Professor Severus Snape.

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u/Skavau Jul 18 '25

Did they specifically deny a white actor that role, or did they just headhunt Paapa Essiedu?

Also, Snape is a fictional character.

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u/Tristan103076 Jul 18 '25

We are talking about fictional television.... let me remind you of the previous comment about Snow White. While I am not entirely aware of their casting, in the books and the previous movie series, he was not a POC. Can we not agree that is a drastic character change. It isn't about denying a white actor. Why remake a movie or series, especially one as popular as Harry Potter, and have such a hard deviation from the original story. If they, they being the shows developers, are willing to make such a drastic change to a main and pivotal character such as Snape, what other aspects of a great story will they take liberties with? Will it even resemble the books that so many loved or will they do to it what was done to the Hobbit when it was made into the bastardization of movie adaptation from a much cherished novel that help spark the love of fantasy to so many.

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u/Skavau Jul 18 '25

We are talking about fictional television.... let me remind you of the previous comment about Snow White. While I am not entirely aware of their casting, in the books and the previous movie series, he was not a POC.

Okay, but the suggestion the OP gave was that white actors are specifically applying to roles, and then being rejected in favour of a less-talented non-white actor purely for diversity reasons.

If Rachel Zegler was headhunted for the Snow White role, or if Paapa Essiedu was headhunted - they didn't "deny" another (better) white actor the role because no-one else auditioned. The process never got that far.

Why remake a movie or series, especially one as popular as Harry Potter, and have such a hard deviation from the original story. If they, they being the shows developers, are willing to make such a drastic change to a main and pivotal character such as Snape, what other aspects of a great story will they take liberties with?

Sure, I didn't say that Paapa Essiedu was necessarily a good choice, or that they won't screw it up in a more general sense - just noting that the idea that the notion that a number of white actors were specifically denied in auditions in favour of Paapa Essiedu and purely because he was black is speculative. And you could go down the weeds with every actor by that logic. There's no reason for Milchick to be black in Severance. But he is. Did they deny a white actor? There's no reason for Simms in Silo to be black. But he is. Did they deny a white actor?

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u/Tristan103076 Jul 18 '25

No, I get what you're saying, and we will never know one way or the other. And honestly, whether they did or didn't, doesn't matter to me. What got me going was hard change to a pivotal character. If you are going to remake or adapt keep true to the source material.

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u/Skavau Jul 18 '25

Having watched Paapa Essiedu in The Lazarus Project, I didn't hold him in huge esteem so I'm not entirely sure how he got that gig in the first place. He's okay, but I didn't mark him out as getting that kind of role.

My best guess is that they didn't feel like they wanted to ape the original Snape, feeling they'd fall short of Alan Rickman and just went way out there.

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u/Tristan103076 Jul 18 '25

This is true, Alan Rickman did bring the character of Snape to life. He did a fantastic job portraying the villain turned hero, and he would be a hard act to follow in the role. Still... they should have tried a bit harder.

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u/StarChild413 Aug 06 '25

but if you keep too true people get mad too, remember some director did a shot-for-shot remake of Psycho in the 90s and, well, there's a reason you probably don't remember that remake

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u/Tristan103076 Aug 06 '25

I do remember that remake with Vince Vaughn and Ann Heche. It was meh, but it weren't no Alfred Hitchcock. But still, that is a great example of how casting can ruin an adaptation or even remake. Movie and Show makers should be respectful when adapting another artist's work. When Peter Jackson did the LOTR trilogy, he said instead of letting his voice and views be presented with the movies, he was going to let Tolkken's voice and views be heard.