D.B. Weiss

HBO is standing by its controversial alternative history drama Confederate following the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

Hollywood producer-director Judd Apatow has come out in defense of HBO amid brewing controversy surrounding the network’s plans to produce Confederate, a drama around an alternate reality in which the South won the Civil War and slavery developed into a modern institution.

Amazon Studios has announced details for its new alt-history drama series Black America, from Hollywood super-producer Will Packer and The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder, that imagines a present day world in which America is in decline and at war with inhabitants of a nation run by former slaves.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A social media campaign to derail HBO’s planned modern-day Southern slavery drama quickly caught fire, prompting the cable channel to ask detractors to withhold judgment until they see “Confederate.”

Social media users are furious over the news that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are setting their next project at HBO around an alternate reality in which the South won the Civil War and slavery developed into a modern institution.

Titled Confederate, the series explores an alternate history of America in which the South succeeded in seceding from the Union during the Civil War, and in which slavery is still legal and has become an accepted institution.