Just when you thought Hollywood was about to get back to normal following the conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike, a new crisis is rising up as the industry is left divided over opinions on the Israel-Gaza war.
Many studio and agencies are drawing hard lines in the sand on what their talent can and can’t say about the situation, with two high-profile firings including Melissa Barrera being removed from Scream 7 and Susan Sarandon being dropped by her representatives. In both cases, the actresses in question had offered pro-Palestinian comments on social media.
As Variety put it in their piece analyzing the impact on the conflict on Hollywood, the industry is full of “firings, finger-pointing, and feelings of betrayal” right now as “the industry wrestles with the raw emotions aroused by the eruption of violence in the Middle East.” As you would expect, there’s lots of raw emotion going around on social media too, and one star who’s found themselves in the thick of it is Stranger Things‘ Noah Schnapp.
Why are some social media users campaigning for Noah Schnapp to be fired from Stranger Things?
Noah Schnapp, who is Jewish himself, has taken a diametrically opposed position on the Israel war than Barrera and Sarandon, for instance, as he has been very vocal about his pro-Israel stance on social media. Schnapp has even gone further than those causing a stir online and has shared his support in real life too. A TikTok video of his from early November 2023 went viral for depicting Schnapp and friends handing out “Zionism is sexy” stickers to customers in a cafe.
Naturally, in the face of a popular actress like Barrera getting fired from a major franchise, her fans and other supporters of her position are hitting back at Hollywood for punishing Barrera and others for their position while Schnapp has been equally passionately political on his platforms with no repercussions. Reactions get extremely heated, so they won’t be embedded here, but suffice it to say that many are demanding Netflix fire him from Stranger Things 5 for comments they are labeling as “disgusting” and “absolutely sickening.”
Despite the controversy Schnapp is stirring up, it seems unlikely that Netflix will feel forced to remove him from the fifth and final season of its most iconic series, however. Spyglass Media, for example, has stated that Barrera was fired from Scream 7 as it has a “zero tolerance policy” for views it perceives as “antisemitic.” If Netflix follows a similar policy then Schnapp should have nothing to worry about.
Stranger Things 5 started shooting in June 2023, just prior to the strikes, and is believed to resume filming in late 2023/early 2024.
