It’s well known in Hollywood that if your movie features firearms heavily and is released immediately post mass-shooting then your box office will likely be severely impacted. While the practice is not new in Hollywood, Steve Gunderson, a Disney executive, is the first to openly talk about shooting alternate gun-free scenes in case of a mass-shooting.
Our filmmakers sometimes like to feature firearms in our films, as they offer a level of realism and danger. But we understand that it can be troubling to see guns if it happens to be a few days after 14 school children are gunned down. So, for Avengers Endgame, we shot alternate scenes where the mercenaries and Shield agents, who feature heavily in a pivotal scene, were firing laser rifles instead of more conventional weaponry. Normally, we would maybe use CGI to replace the guns but we here at Disney thought our fans deserve better. So the Russo brothers actually restaged the entire scene for the unique characteristics of laser warfare in the MCU and wrote in a scene explaining how the two groups retrofitted themselves with Kree weaponry.
Steve Gunderson, Disney
While the practice is not new, Disney would appear to very committed to use technology and their new streaming service to take the practice to the next level. Steve Gunderson expanded on this later in the same interview.
… and because of digital film distribution and our streaming service we can actually serve different film versions to different traumatized customers. No more than a half hour after the shooting, our team will evaluate and find a shooting-specific solution. So, for example, we have a couple gunned down in an office shooting in Lexington, Ky. That’s pretty low on our mass shooting index. Only people in Lexington will be served the laser version. And that scales of course. Maybe a school child gets hit. County wide lasers. High school shooting. That’s not as traumatic as it was in the 90s. State wide lasers. And for those biannual Sandy Hooks, the entire nation will get lasers for between 5-7 days.
Steve Gunderson, Disney
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