British film producer, Marc John, managed to win a lawsuit against LucasFilmsl after the company tried to shut down a convention broadcast of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, as detailed over on BlackstoneChambers.com. After winning the lawsuit, John began following along the recent controversies involving the backlash against fans in the Star Wars community from the media and from LucasFilms itself. Hence, he decided to make a documentary about the phenomenon called Episode Backlash.

In a press release, John explains…

“[…] On the fan side, I saw an uprising against what I agree is bad storytelling. On the news media side, I saw fans who voiced legitimate criticism being labeled as sexist and racist. This is unfair and inaccurate.” ​ “From what I can tell, the rebels are airing their views in a healthy manner. A lot of the video critiques are very intelligent. Some are even quite witty. There does seem to be a few radicals. But I would separate them from the rebellion at large.” ​ “A lot of news reporters are making no distinction between the rebel majority and the radical minority. Grouping them together is wrong and misleading.”

This is true.

The media has claimed that fans are just “toxic”, “racist” and “misogynistic”.

Some of LucasFilms’ own creators, authors, and directors have even gone as far as to claim that fans are “white supremacists” for not liking Star Wars: The Last Jedi, while others under the Disney wing have called fans of Star Wars “detestable”.

Director Rian Johnson even went so far as to lambast fans, claiming that their resistance was reminiscent of “#GamerGate tactics”.

This kind of absurdity kicked into high gear after Star Wars fans boycotted Solo: A Star Wars Story, causing it to tank at the box office, which angered Disney and LucasFilms.

According to John, he’ll be looking into the situation with an investigative touch, as well as taking feedback from fans…

“”When time is taken to properly investigate the situation, it becomes clear that the fan rebellion has nothing to do with race or gender. Fans just want to see good Star Wars films. This rebellion is no minority. It is driven by love for Star Wars, not by hate. Let’s lower the temperature and explore the situation in a civilised, intelligent, documentary debate.” “Travelling around the world to interview fans isn’t practical. I have a set of questions for the community. I can put these forward for fans to answer on camera and privately upload their videos to me. In this way, the voice of the fandom can feature in the documentary, wherever we are in the world. Even if you’ve given up on the saga, tell me why in the documentary.”

I imagine if John doesn’t toe the line set forward by the media it will be shunned just like what happened with Cassie Jaye’s documentary The Red Pill, which exposed the destructive nature of third-wave feminism, and thus was dropped from various digital distribution services, including Netflix.

Nevertheless, if you’re interested in learning more about the Episode Backlash documentary and the deep dive into Disney and LucasFilms’ war against their own fans, you can visit the official website.​