Game of Thrones creators slammed for new show, ‘Confederate’

THE creators of Game of Thrones have announced their next project, and the new HBO series has already upset a whole lot of people.

GAME Of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have already lined up a new project for when the popular fantasy series wraps up next year.

HBO announced it has greenlit a drama series, Confederate, from the pair, which is expected to debut in either late 2018 or 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But not everyone is happy.

Confederate will take place in an alternate universe in which the Southern Confederate states successfully seceded from the Union after the American Civil War. Effectively, this means that what we know as the United States was split into two countries, one in which slavery remained legal.

The area where the two countries meet is called the Mason-Dixon Demilitarised Zone (not unlike the DMZ that separates North and South Korea) and the show will follow characters including politicians, slave hunters, abolitionists, journalists and freedom fighters in the lead up to the “Third American Civil War”.

Benioff and Weiss will serve as showrunners and writers for the series, like they do for Game of Thrones. The show won’t go into production until after the final season of Game of Thrones next year.

Benioff and Weiss have brought on board Nichelle Spellman (The Good Wife, Justified) and Malcolm Spellman (Empire) as writers and executive producers.

While Game of Thrones was adapted from George R.R. Martin’s books, Confederate appears to be an original concept.

Co-creator David Benioff with actor Amanda Peet at the Game of Thrones season seven premiere. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

“We have discussed Confederate for years, originally as a concept for a feature film,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement. “But our experience on Thrones has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO. There won’t be dragons or White Walkers in this series, but we are creating a world.”

Confederate bears some similarity to Amazon series Man in the High Castle which is set in an alternative reality in which Nazi-Germany and Japan won World War II and the US is now part of their empire.

However, within hours of the announcement, the backlash was on. Social media users took offence at a fantasy series in which a modern American society still enslaved African-Americans, especially given the current political atmosphere in the US.

A room of ppl @hbo decided they should make this. bc white people fantasizing about slavery being legal again is totes cool. #confederate https://t.co/FNTUsYtsLp

— Beth Sherouse (@DrGBeth) July 19, 2017

Is HBO really making a racist's wet dream with Confederate?? In this climate for black people??

— Sensei. (@SimplyChance_x) July 19, 2017

I for one can't imagine an Alternate History where there are monuments to Confederate leaders all over America.

— Sigh Hersh (@Ugarles) July 19, 2017

Like even if Confederate is critical of current day racism, do we need another series about the suffering of POC, written by white men?

— peat ape (@kamilumin) July 19, 2017

remind me to stay off the internet the day when Ed Sheeran cameos as a slave trader in CONFEDERATE.

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) July 19, 2017

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