'Game of Thrones' creators spark Twitter uproar due to slavery theme

Television network HBO's announcement of its upcoming fantasy drama project titled "Confederate" has led to an uproar on Twitter due to its slavery theme.

The project, stewarded by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss -- creators of TV megashow "Game of Thrones", was announced on Wednesday, reports aceshowbiz.com.

According to the network's description of the American civil war drama, the series "chronicles the events leading to the Third American Civil War. The series takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution".

"The story follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarised Zone -- freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall," the description continues.

People soon took to Twitter to express their displeasure at the fantasy drama woven around the theme of slavery.

"The writers of a fantasy show with no black people cant wait to write a fantasy show where the black roles are... slaves," writer Ira Madison III wrote.

Another baffled reader reacted: "I don't know how you keep your sanity in a society so crazy it's still having public slavery fantasies. I really don't. Maybe you can't."

Writer Marc Bernardin wrote: "Feels like HBO should greenlight my show, in which the African slave trade never existed, as parity."

"Game of thrones just got called out for not having enough diversity and then the writers came up with #Confederate," another commented, while posting a meme.

--IANS

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