Part 9/13:
The narrative around “toxic fandom” is often oversimplified. Yes, some fans behave poorly, but this is an enduring aspect of passionate communities. Hollywood’s failure isn’t in fans’ passion; it’s in how the industry dismisses or dismissively reacts to that passion, often branding dissent as toxicity.
Henry Caval, a fan perspective advocate, stresses that fans have every right to express their opinions—passionate or critical—and that dismissing this loyalty at the risk of alienating core audiences is business suicide. When franchises target only a fragment of their audience for ideological reasons, they risk losing everyone, creating a divide where none needs to exist.