He was joking (don’t fall for that!), but his quip highlights a very obvious dichotomy. Last year, when everyone from President Donald Trump talked about the dangers of DEI, the biggest cultural successes—sinners, kpop demon hunter, heated rivalry, one fight after another– Everyone demonstrated diversity in new ways. And it was successful. These works were not just popular among leftists or critics, they were bona fide cultural phenomena.
sinnersA horror film set in the Jim Crow South, it uses vampires as a metaphorical device to explore systemic racism and cultural theft – and director Ryan Coogler scored a feat in his deal with Warner Bros., which gave him the film rights over 25 years. kpop demon hunterThe story of a female Korean-Canadian director who had been waiting for the chance to direct a feature for over a decade placed a heavy emphasis on authenticity and brought the already massive subculture around K-pop into the mainstream. heated rivalryA small Canadian television production commissioned by HBO has a profoundly subversive effect on hockey by scripting an erotic but touching love story between two closeted pro players. And one fight after another-Condemned by conservative commentators, who felt it symbolized left-wing violence – including ICE agents such as Colonel Steven J. offered complex views on motherhood and activism while skewering Lockjaw and her desperate attempts to fit in with other racists.
In a year when the White House issued multiple executive orders to dismantle DEI programs across the federal government, the success of those projects felt like a kind of resistance. Corporate media followed Trump’s path, with Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon, Paramount Global, and Disney all reportedly reducing their diversity efforts. Skydance, founded by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison, acquired Paramount, which briefly fired Jimmy Kimmel over jokes about Charlie Kirk supporters and gave CBS News a conservative makeover. Meanwhile, shows offering red meat in the form of farmers, angry MAGA followers, cowboys, and Christian values have been greenlit and promoted.
“There’s a feeling on the part of this administration that the only stories that matter are the stories of straight white people, and that’s simply not the case,” says Jenny Werner, executive artistic director of the New Harmony Project, which develops theater, film and TV projects.
“Audiences want to feel changed. You want to sit down and watch something, whether it’s in your home or in a theater, that takes you to a new place and maybe gives you a new understanding of something.” She says she is confident that artists will continue to do “boundary-pushing work”, even if it gets harder.
Even before Trump’s second term, trying to get offbeat stories made in Hollywood has been a difficult task. According to UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report released in December, nearly 80 percent of directors of theatrical films in 2024 were white, as were nearly 75 percent of lead actors.
The report also suggests that this discrepancy is leaving money on the table, noting that BIPOC moviegoers were “overrepresented as ticket buyers for films that had more than 20 percent BIPOC cast members.” According to The New York Times, The Sinners grossed $368 million at the box office, placing it in the “Horror Hall of Fame”.
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