Entertainment
Joss Whedon’s Cancellation Still Makes No Sense, Unless It's An Attack On You
By Joshua Tyler
| Updated
The first twenty years of the 2000s belonged to Joss Whedon, and he found that success by becoming king of the nerds. His was the mind behind the most successful geek properties of all time, and he was Marvel’s chief genius, the architect of assembling The Avengers. Then, in 2021, he was cancelled. I still don’t understand why.
First, it must be said that Joss Whedon definitely did bad things, and he’s not someone I would ever be friends with. The source of my confusion isn’t a debate over whether he’s a virtuous person; he isn’t. What doesn’t add up is why Hollywood’s powers think his level of virtue should determine whether or not he’s allowed to work.
To understand how strange Joss Whedon’s cancellation is, first, we need to understand what he’s accused of. Here’s a simple, bullet-point list.
Joss Whedon’s Bad Behavior
- Joss Whedon is accused of saying mean things to Ray Fisher and Charisma Carpenter.
- Joss Whedon was a bad husband and had consensual relationships with his actresses.
- Joss Whedon’s sets weren’t always fun, according to some people.
None of these things is good, but to put them in context, let’s compare that list to things done by other Hollywood notables who aren’t cancelled and can do whatever they want.
Woody Allen’s Bad Behavior
- Woody Allen is accused of molesting his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
- Woody Allen married his adopted daughter.
- Woody Allen cheated on his wife with his adopted daughter.
That seems worse than Joss Whedon. A lot worse. Yet Woody Allen isn’t cancelled. Let’s try someone else, maybe Woody Allen is a one-off? What about acclaimed director Roman Polanski, who frequently wins Oscars and can work on anything he wants?
Roman Polanski’s Bad Behavior
- Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, raping a 13-year-old child.
- Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, drugging a child.
- Roman Polanski fled the country to escape justice.
Roman Polanski has suffered zero consequences and instead is frequently nominated for awards and praised as a genius. What about a more modern figure, like Mel Gibson?
Mel Gibson’s Bad Behavior
- Mel Gibson was arrested for a DUI, which endangered the lives of others.
- Mel Gibson is on tape making sexist and full-on anti-Semitic and racist comments.
- Mel Gibson pleaded not guilty to domestic battery against a helpless woman.
- Mel Gibson is on tape making violent threats.
There was, for a time, some vague noise about cancellation over Gibson’s anti-semitic comments, but it never happened. He kept working, getting payday roles in big Hollywood movies like Daddy’s Home. At this very moment, Mel Gibson is working on directing The Passion of the Christ 2. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon’s Firefly series is being handed over to a talentless hack who made a bunch of terrible superhero shows, because Whedon is not allowed to work.
Maybe Joss Whedon’s problem is that most of his bad behavior revolved around things that happened at work. Let’s take a look at another big, Hollywood director.
James Cameron’s Bad Behavior
- James Cameron is accused of saying mean things to Ed Harris and other actors.
- James Cameron was a bad husband and had numerous consensual relationships with his actresses.
- James Cameron’s sets aren’t always fun, and he’s known to yell at people, mistreat his cast, and physically endanger them.
James Cameron’s history seems similar to Joss Whedon’s. Yet he’s currently in production on another Avatar movie, and no one seems to mind any of it.
Evil Flourishes In Hollywood
Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, and Woody Allen are not edge cases. Neither is James Cameron, whose behavior is pretty much a mirror of every successful Hollywood director. The movie-making business is full of people who are, by any objective measure, extremely evil.
To actually get punished, you usually have to be as bad as Harvey Weinstein, a serial assaulter and abuser with dozens of accusers. He’s now in jail, where he belongs, but if he gets out (and that’s a real possibility), he’ll never work in Hollywood again.
By comparison, Joss Whedon said some vaguely mean things, was a bad husband, and yet, like Harvey Weinstein, he’s never going to work again. It doesn’t add up.
The Psychology Behind Hating Nerds
Until the early 2000s, nerds like Joss Whedon and the nerd audience he represents were treated like a joke. Nerds were disrespected, hated, and entire movies, like Napoleon Dynamite, were built around the idea of how funny it was to bully and dunk on them.
That changed as Hollywood began to see the profit potential behind catering to geeks, but that doesn’t mean the powers that be were happy about it. They couldn’t be, because of something called Status Identity Threat Syndrome.
Status Identity Threat Syndrome (noun): A psychological response in which individuals experience anxiety, defensiveness, or hostility when the traits or skills that underpin their social status and self-worth are devalued or displaced within a shifting hierarchy.
Extroverted networkers tend to build influence through visibility, relationships, and social fluency, the traditional, human-centric routes to power. For most of human history, these kinds of networkers ran not just Hollywood, but the entire world. When “nerd” types, people who win through technical mastery, obsessive focus, or systems thinking, start outperforming them, it scrambles that hierarchy.
Psychologically, it’s a form of status inconsistency: the traits that used to signal dominance (charisma, connections) suddenly matter less than competence in domains the networkers don’t control. That creates anxiety, because it’s not just losing, it’s losing in a way that makes your skill set feel obsolete.
People defend traits on which they base their self-worth. If success shifts away from social skills like extroverted networking, those invested in social capital can feel threatened. So if you’re an extrovert who has built your entire life around looking cool, seeing an awkward nerd succeed would, from a well-founded psychological perspective, make you very nervous.
Anti-Nerd Bigotry Is Real
As you might expect, as the founder of sites like GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT, I’m something of a nerd. The more successful I’ve gotten, the more the extroverts who man the levers of power dislike me, and the harder they’ve worked to push me out. It’s not something unique to me; it’s something that happens to every introverted nerd in every industry and social corner. Ask them about it, and they’ll tell you.
It’s why educational research shows that introverted students are more likely to be ignored by teachers, receiving less attention and help, resulting in lower grades and fewer opportunities. It’s why data shows that extroverts are more likely to get favorable outcomes in court and even receive superior medical care. It’s why introverted nerds, on average, make 20% less than their extroverted counterparts, despite data showing they demonstrate superior competence at work.
Joss Whedon isn’t the only nerd to be cancelled over allegations like these. Pixar’s bespectacled, Hawaiian shirt-wearing John Lasseter was kicked out of Hollywood for giving a hug. Anyone seen Harry Knowles lately?
I’m not arguing here that Joss Whedon should be un-cancelled; he seems like a hypocritical jerk. Also, Harry Knowles always struck me as a sleaze; we’re probably better off without him. But if being unlikable is the baseline standard we’re setting for whether or not you’re allowed to work, then shouldn’t Woody Allen be locked up in a torture dungeon, instead of being celebrated as a genius?
Make it make sense. Until you do, I’m going to assume you hate nerds and respond by hating you right back. I’m also never going to celebrate anything by Roman Polanski. Sorry, Rosemary’s Baby.
Entertainment
New Star Wars Movie Failed By Solving Marvel’s Biggest Problem
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Right now, it’s fair to say that Disney is a victim of its own success. The House of Mouse decided to get into the streaming game with Disney+, and they made this new platform the home of all things Marvel and Star Wars. They succeeded in containing the world’s two biggest intellectual properties under one roof, but this came at a cost. The MCU began to suffer under its own weight, and fans began to resent many of the new shows on Disney+. The most common complaint is that most of these series felt like annoying “homework” they had to watch just to understand the next big Marvel movie.
Is that criticism fair? That’s debatable. While some Marvel shows on Disney+ stand alone, some are basically required viewing if you want to follow along with the newest films. However, when watching The Mandalorian and Grogu, I couldn’t help but feel like movie writer Dave Filoni was trying to avoid comparisons to Marvel by creating a movie that required no homework whatsoever. He succeeded in making a movie that fans could enjoy even if they’ve ignored Star Wars for the last two decades. This approach backfired, though. While the latest Star Wars is amazingly accessible, it’s so disconnected from the franchise that it feels completely meaningless.
Way Too Much Homework
Complaints about Marvel TV shows feeling like homework are tied to broader debates about what, exactly, a movie should be. Many like the idea of a film as being a self-contained unit of entertainment unto itself. This is one (admittedly, of many) problem that certain Star Wars fans had with the Prequel Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy: interesting characters like Count Dooku and Snoke are placed onscreen with no real introduction or fanfare. The assumption made by those in charge of Star Wars (George Lucas and, later, Disney) is that fans could simply get these characters’ backstories in various books and comics and didn’t need to see it onscreen.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe took this idea and made it much, much worse. You had to watch entire films (like the solo Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America movies) to really understand big team-ups like The Avengers. Later, Disney+ became home to shows you had to watch ahead of movies. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness makes no sense without watching WandaVision, for example, and The Marvels makes no sense without watching Ms. Marvel. This led to widespread fan complaints that Disney had basically assigned homework and that we’d need to watch eight hours of a TV show just to understand a movie.
No Homework (And No Meaning)
Initially, this wasn’t really a problem with Star Wars because The Rise of Skywalker was so bad that we went seven years before seeing a new film in the franchise. That meant that various Disney+ shows in a galaxy far, far away could mostly stand on their own. But The Mandalorian and Grogu finally brought Star Wars back to theaters, and we’ll be getting more franchise films (like Starfighter) in the coming years. Mandalorian and Grogu writer and new Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni seemingly tried to avoid the homework problem by making a movie that requires almost no prior Star Wars viewing whatsoever, a decision that became something of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, Filoni made The Mandalorian and Grogu the most accessible Star Wars film since A New Hope. If someone only vaguely remembers an episode or two of The Mandalorian Season 1, they can follow along. They know the title characters, and Din Djarin even gets a new version of his old ship back. Even if you’re a Star Wars fan who never watched the show at all, it’s easy to follow along with the plot. The Boba Fett-looking man and his Baby Yoda sidekick are the good guys, the Stormtroopers are the bad guys, and all you have to do is turn your brain off and watch.
Two Hours Of Your Life You’ll Never Get Back
On the other hand, Filoni’s ultra-accessible writing is a big part of why The Mandalorian and Grogu failed. The movie doesn’t touch on or resolve any of the major plot points from The Mandalorian or advance Din Djarin or Grogu’s characters in any meaningful way. It’s such a disposable plot that if The Mandalorian ever gets a Season 4, you could skip the film entirely before watching the new season. If the show doesn’t get another season, though, this movie is the worst kind of finale for these characters because there are no significant payoffs to ongoing mysteries like Grogu’s past or Din Djarin’s future with the Mandalorians and the New Republic.
All of this underscores how cynical The Mandalorian and Grogu really is. Disney didn’t create this movie to provide an emotionally rewarding sendoff, and they obviously didn’t make it because the writers had a great story to tell. No, the House of Mouse just wanted to put Star Wars back in theaters with a film that would wash The Rise of Skywalker out of our mouths. The idea is to prime audiences for more Star Wars films in the coming years, but the effort backfired. If this is the best thing you can put onscreen today, why would anyone spend good money to see the crap you put onscreen tomorrow?
So, congrats, Dave Filoni (and cowriters Jon Favreau and Noah Kloor): you played yourself. You solved the homework problem that has plagued Marvel by creating the most accessible Star Wars film in half a century. But the result is a disconnected mess, one that pisses off fans of The Mandalorian while making everyone else wonder why this film was even made. At least failures like the prequels and the sequels were trying to tell a meaningful and impactful story. All that The Mandalorian and Grogu is telling us is that Yoda’s admonition of Count Dooku applies very much to Clone Wars showrunner Filoni: “much to learn, you still have.”
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for May 30, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re dependable.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: We’ll be there
The words are related to traits.
Mashable Top Stories
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe positive characteristics.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Good Friends.
NYT Strands word list for May 30
-
Reliable
-
Loyal
-
Good Friends
-
Helpful
-
Caring
-
Trustworthy
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 30, 2026
Today’s Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you’re always in a good mood.
If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Where did Wordle come from?
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What’s the best Wordle starting word?
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.
Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:
To grin.
Mashable Top Stories
Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?
There are no recurring letters.
Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter S.
The Wordle answer today is…
Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today’s Wordle is…
SMILE
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.
Report: Steelers assistant coach out over violation of club policy
Ian Poulter plays on torn meniscus, surgery set for September
