Spider-Man: Lotus‘ Letterboxd listing has vanished from the platform just days before the film’s official release. The controversial fan project continues to face backlash after multiple allegations about the lead actor and filmmaker surfaced, and this was highly reflected in early comments about the movie.
Before it was pulled, Spider-Man: Lotus received over 700 one-star ratings, accompanied by comments that mocked the recent controversy. Reviewers also took jabs at Warren Wayne, turning the project into a speculative What If…? scenario of “What if Spider-Man was racist?”
Furthermore, people joked about the film’s plot and how there was a “white supremacist” subplot. The feature’s version of Peter Parker was also poked at, discussing how he was mean to other notable Marvel characters, such as Miles Morales and Luke Cage.
Eventually, Spider-Man: Lotus disappeared from Letterboxd‘s database, with an error page appearing in it’s stead at the time of writing. It’s unknown if and when it will come back, but out of all the other non-for-profit productions based on popular IPs that have come out, Spider-Man: Lotus has to be one of the very few to face this much outcry.
What was once a highly-anticipated Spider-Man fan story was met with mockery after leaked DMs showed Wayne using racist slurs in the past. The actor has apologized through a Twitter statement, claiming that he had used such language as a result of involvement with the “groups he’s associated himself with” in the past.
It was also brought to light that the filmmaker and YouTuber, Gavin Konop, also had a history of using hateful slurs. While he expressed regret for some of the allegations made against him, he claimed that some of the screenshots were fake.
Like it or not, it still seems like Spider-Man: Lotus will still be popping up on YouTube on Aug. 10, 2023.
Published: Aug 7, 2023 11:40 pm