Where a poisoned apple failed, Hollywood sexism will succeed.
News arrived last week that a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, the 2012 action-oriented feminist revision of the fairy tale, will go on without its heroine protagonist.
It’s safe to say that SWATH’s box-office performance depended greatly on Kristen Stewart, then still under her Twilight contract. Simply put, without her participation in the movie, that film would not have sold enough tickets to warrant a second-parter.
Like her Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke before her, then, Stewart has been pushed out of the franchise she made happen. The spinoff will simply be called The Huntsman, centering on Chris Hemsworthy’s blank hunk. Charlize Theron will reportedly reprise her role as the evil queen. Director Rupert Sanders will be replaced by another male director, Frank Darabont.
In the post-Katniss, post-Frozen, post-Gravity era, one would hope that Hollywood learn to stop worrying and love action heroines already. As for the tabloid scandal tying Stewart to SWATH, well, stardom and infidelity have never been strangers in Hollywood. Whether actresses are branded more often with a scarlet letter is a discussion for another time.
[via She Knows]
