![Dead End: Paranormal Park [c/o Netflix © 2022]](https://dev.animationmagazine.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Season_1_Trailer__Dead_End__Paranormal_Park_00_01_04_13.jpg "Season_1_Trailer__Dead_End__Paranormal_Park_00_01_04_13")
Elon Musk has joined the call to for subscribers to stop their Netflix subscriptions after a clip from the already canceled animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park has gone viral across right-wing social media feeds. The clip shows main character Barney (voiced by Zach Barack) saying he is transgender. The series ran for two seasons (20 episodes) in 2022 and Netflix announced it would not renew in 2023.
The frothing response to the character’s gender identity across accounts such as “Libs of TikTok,” “MAGA Voice” and “Gays Against Groomers” reached MAGA mogul Musk, who shared a post declaiming Netflix for “pushing pro-transgender on children.” (The supernatural comedy-adventure series is rated Y7, suitable for children 7 and older, on the streamer.) “This is not ok,” Musk commented. He added to his X audience: “Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids.”
Dead End: Paranormal Park‘s creator, Hamish Steele, shared a screenshot of Musk’s shared xeet to his BlueSky account on Tuesday, writing: “It’s probably going to be a very odd day.”
Brydie Lee-Kennedy, an animation writer who worked on the show, shared and added: “Wow all the hours we spent in the writers room brainstorming how to appeal to fascist billionaires WASTED.”
The situation rapidly devolved for Steele. Over the following days, he shared on BlueSky that he had “mostly been very ok” and appreciated messages of support from fans, “but the extremely nasty weird homopho[b]ic and antisemitic emails have started rolling in and it is getting a little scary.” He later updated that his Instagram comments “are now flooded with replies saying I AM CHARLIE KIRK.” Finally, Steele said things were “much much worse” and that he would be stepping away from social media.
This flame war contrasts with another recent social media fire, which saw the Knights of Guinevere fandom turn on creator Dana Terrace for explaining that one of the main characters, Frankie, is not canonically transgender. Some fans of the extremely successful indie pilot produced by Glitch who believed there were many hints to the character’s trans identity, including being referred to as “Franklin” which was perceived as misgendering, decried Terrace’s response to the question as “transphobic.”
Terrace’s comment reply on BlueSky that set the situation off was: “Frankie is cis, she just has a lot of nicknames. I have friends who call me Dan, DBO, Danny. Just happens sometimes.”
The animator, who is best known for creating the fan-favorite Disney Television Animation show The Owl House, later clarified, “I feel like my answer to a question was wildly misinterpreted. I think seeing her as trans is awesome, I see the connection when [people] talk about it, and I have also never in my career been against [headcanons], why would I start now?”
“I’m sorry if my reply came across as too short or casual an answer. It may not have been my intention but it’s an absolutely valid and awesome interpretation to see Frankie as trans. I love seeing what people take away from stories and that will always be the case. It’s the beauty of fiction!”
The Owl House ran for three seasons on Disney Channel from 2020-2023 and was widely lauded for its LGBTQ representation, which Terrace personally pushed the studio for. It was the first Disney animation project to feature a same-sex couple in leading roles as well as depict a same-sex kiss between lead characters, same-sex parents and a non-binary character. The show was thrice nominated for the GLAAD Media Award for kids’ animation, as well as Annie Awards and a Daytime Emmy, and won the 2021 Peabody Award for Children’s & Youth Program (shared with Stillwater).
The Knights of Guinevere pilot launched 12 days ago on YouTube and has racked up more than 12 million views to date. Read more about the project here.
[H/T Variety, TheGamer]
