This weekend I saw Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens playing the two main characters. While it was very well produced and the CGI work was incredible I want to bring up the more pressing issue of banning the movie.
This character right here is Disney's first openly gay character and his name is LeFou played by Josh Gad. As many people probably noticed the internet has blown up over one gay character in a Disney movie. When I walked into the movie theater I was expecting something that was more obvious about him being gay. Honestly if I had not known he was gay I would not have thought of as any different then a normal character.
I think this kind of backlash is why movies are trying their hardest to keep mainstream. When you search for movies on the internet and scroll down to the comment section, there are so many offensive comments about any minority group. It then makes the production company look bad for not saying anything against the haters.
This is a lose lose situation for Hollywood because if the audience stops coming because of one character what is the likelihood they will get that customer back? But then again they want to be progressive and stay up with the times because they could lose the minority groups. The minorities will grow tired of not being represented and find other movie companies that do present them. The verdict for how they should handle situations like this: still unknown. Too many factors are involved and you will never stop having haters in the world.