Nadria Tucker, who was previously a story editor and writer on SyFy’s Krypton, revealed that The CW did not renew her contract for the upcoming Superman & Lois show.
The self-described SJW took to Twitter to reveal that the CW did not renew her contract because they found her “outline and draft subpar.”
Tucker wrote, “Some personal news: Wednesday I got word that my contract on Superman and Lois won’t be extended, my services no longer needed, my outline and draft subpar (obviously I disagree with that last bit lol).”
She then claimed a number of her complaints about the show had been ignored for months.
“This, after months of flagging #MeToo jokes in dialogue of me defending the Bechdel test, of me FIGHTING to ensure the only Black faces on screen aren’t villains, of me pitching stories for female characters (There’s one in the title of the series!) that went ignored,” she wrote.
The writer then added, “If I sound bitter, it’s because this one stings.”
Tucker then concluded, “I’ve been assured by colleagues that I was great in the room, so I know I’m not nuts. I debated whether to post this but my own mental wellbeing demands that I do. The only way shit changes is to expose it.”
Tucker’s comments about Superman & Lois are not out of the ordinary. Back in 2019, Tucker took issue with a photograph of a writer’s room from David Simon.
Simon tweeted, “Writers room, day one of a new project. Too many smiles. Notepads empty. We shall address these affronts promptly.”
In response to a user calling for Simon to hire more women, he wrote, “No, not for this room. The expertise gathered for this content is precise. Other, contemporaneous rooms in prep or underway for BD have more women than men. But thanks for the critique.”
Tucker responded to this comment writing, “Is the expertise in being a white dude?”
Simon would respond writing, “It’s certainly not in being snide. Five are native Baltimoreans. One policed the city for two decades, one is the lead reporter who covered the specific Baltimore issue, one lived it in the neighborhood, one wrote dozens of novels on these themes. Four produced The Wire.”
Simon then added, “Sometimes just counting bodies on your fingers isn’t the way to optimize insight or judge much of anything that matters.”
User Terri Kopp responded, “No. Representation matters. Are you saying you couldn’t find any other women or POC from Baltimore? Or who lived there? Or who had expertise in the subject matter? What about the “expertise” of actually being female?”
Tucker would concur writing, “That’s what he’s saying. Worse, he’s ignoring our criticisms and doubling down.”
Simon responded, “Tripling down. I know this room. I know my other rooms, contemporaneous, which are doing development with more women than men. Because that content argues for it.”
Tucker has also made it clear she is against police departments across the United States of America. Tucker shared her support for Black Artists for Freedom back in June.
The number one cause for Black Artists for Freedom on their website is for “cultural institutions to break ties with police.”
In fact the organization calls for people to “publicly condemn the institution of police as a violent force that exists to further class divisions and capitalistic exploitation which harm our communities.”
They add that “this is a first and clear step that cultural institutions must take toward the broader call to defund the police nationwide.”
The organization also wants cultural institutions to “learn the history of systemic racism. Take concrete and deliberate steps to identify and eliminate anti-black bias. Cultivate curiosity about Black culture. Recognize and respect our communities, our languages, and our religions.”
Finally, they also want cultural institutions to “imagine black freedom.”
They elaborate, “We demand freedom not solely in our persons (our ‘Black bodies,’ our ‘Black lives’) but also in our work. We refuse to be pitted against each other or to be measured by a yardstick of Blackness chosen by others. We demand the freedom to be Black however we wish to be, and to disregard what dominant institutions have deemed ‘marketable, ‘legible,’ ‘palatable,’ or ‘relatable’ to audiences that have been artificially narrowed in advance.
What do you make of Tucker’s contract not being renewed for Superman & Lois?