HBO faced a spirited backlash swiftly after announcing plans to launch “Confederate,” a series set in some alternate universe where the South successfully secedes from the Union and slavery remains in place.
Critics hope the project, "Confederate," never gets off the ground, and took to Twitter during the airing of “Game of Thrones” on Sunday night, since the controversial series is coming from GOT creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Update - HBO has responded
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Programming president Casey Bloys said during a Television Critics Association event that he hopes viewers will "judge the actual material versus what it might be," reported the Hollywood Reporter. Network brass issued a statement saying they have "great respect for the dialogue and concern being expressed around 'Confederate'" and are sure the creative team will approach the subject with care and sensitivity."
The actual Civil War ended in 1865, leaving more than 600,000 Union and Rebel troops dead. See the AJC’s interactive project, War In Our Backyards, for a comprehensive online presentation .
There’s apparently no Appomattox Courthouse scene in the new show. Instead, the HBO series assumes the fighting ended without reuniting the union, and instead the USA and CSA persist, a la North Korea and South Korea or East/West Berlin, with the Mason-Dixon Line serving as a DMZ.
“The story follows a broad swath of characters … freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall,” Deadline reports.
