According to reports made earlier this week, Warner Bros. Discovery has fired the director of the Diversity and Inclusion department, Karen Horne, seemingly following the path that Disney took a few days prior, when they allegedly fired Latondra Newton, their own Diversity and Inclusion director. Newton claimed online that it was her unilateral decision to quit the position, and was not fired, as reported.
Due to the confidentiality of the situation, the internet users have had to come up with theories about the firing of the two directors, with the most popular being that the companies took the decision after the backlash generated by the “forced inclusion” that was the alleged reason for the massive box office failures of projects such as “The Little Mermaid”, where they had a black actress with natural hair, Halle Bailey, play a canonically white siren with silky red hair, in the name of inclusion and representation of the black communities.
“Forced inclusion” is a term that surged online after some people grew angry about the recent trend in the Cinema and Tv industry where they portray characters of historically ignored racial backgrounds and sexualities. In the case of remakes, new seasons, and live action type of projects, some queer and ethnically diverse characters have replaced characters who used to be white and or heterosexual in the original production, which seems to be the main cause of discomfort in the public and the alleged reason why the majority of the public is rejecting the new productions with “forced inclusion”.
However, the two movie powerhouses have acted within their departments to start making amends for the millions of dollars lost in recent productions, with the first step being the replacement of the directors of the diversity and inclusion departments, which was reported by Deadline. Has forced inclusion made a number in the box office of multiple films? It’s a question that might be difficult to find an answer to due to the high amount of variables in the equation, though it’s fair to say that a portion of the public did not go see the movies and series because of the “forced inclusion” argument.
