Spider-Man Lotus Controversy, Explained: Why is the Fan Movie Such a Flop?
The reason why Spider-Man: Lotus has become so infamous.
The long-anticipated fan-made Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Lotus, has been recently released. The movie has already hit 3.4 million views on YouTube and it's been getting much attention (and not always in a good way).
Spider-Man: Lotus began as a small YouTube fan-made project that quickly caught the eyes of many. The final trailer alone racked up over 2.8 million views.
The film is meant to explore Peter Parker's emotional journey after the tragic loss of Gwen Stacy. The film has some impressive VFX shots given that it is a fan-made project. And it seemed like the movie was destined to leave a good impression. But there’s a catch.
While people on YouTube have mostly liked it, giving it 130k thumbs up and 35k thumbs down, the film it's not doing so great, when you look at other ratings. For instance, it is rated 3.7 on IMDb.
The biggest reason for this was that some old text conversations involving the lead actor, Warden Wayne, leaked last year. These texts weren't exactly...friendly. They contained some pretty offensive and racist language.
Wayne did apologize, explaining that he used such language in the past due to peer pressure. But for many fans, the damage was done. It's hard to see your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in the same light after that.
The film's writer and director, Gavin J. Konop, also faced backlash for some past messages that were, let's just say, not very superhero-like. He apologized too, but the controversies kept piling up.
If the controversies involving Wayne and Konop weren't enough, the entire VFX team resigned, citing a toxic work environment. Some even said the film strayed too far from the essence of Spider-Man.
Despite all the drama, Spider-Man: Lotus was released. And, well, it didn't exactly swing high with critics. Many found some scenes of the film dragging on for too long. The storyline was criticized for being too depressing, with Spider-Man sharing his trauma with a young cancer patient.
While Spider-Man: Lotus might have started with good intentions, the controversies left many fans disappointed.