Killing Eve: Backlash At The All-White Writers’ Room

Killing Eve is facing backlash for its composition of the writer’s room, which is all-white. The BML movement is driving the industry to rethink their impact on society.

BBC America’s Killing Eve has landed a controversy due to lack of diversity in its writers’ room. The whole industry is rethinking the way they create content for the TV as well as the web.

Photo: Alpha Coders

Killing Eve follows the character of Eve Polastri (played by Sandra Oh) who is obsessed with female assassins, their psychologies and their methods of killing.

Eve crosses paths with Villanelle and discovers that members within both of their secret circles may be more interconnected than she is comfortable with. Both women begin to focus less on their initial missions in order to desperately learn more about the other.

Related: Killing Eve Season 4: Release Date, Cast, Plot and More!

The show is notable for the fact that each season has been led by a different female showrunner. Starting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge for the first season, Killing Eve has implemented this approach in part to keep the drama fresh and allow new perspectives to shape the narrative.

The Controversy Around Killing Eve

One of the writers, Kayleigh Llewellyn, in a now-deleted tweet, shared a screenshot of a Zoom call between the show’s writers.

“15 weeks later, it’s the final day of the Killing Eve writers room,” wrote Llewellyn. The image featured a group of nine writers, predominantly female, but all white having a virtual get together.

du know how many writers i know in this room? the next cool generation + they don’t seem to give one fuck 😓 (i retweet not to stir – i know the exec v.well – im just tired of people pretending they care to ur face) https://t.co/6pkVxSapd0

— Dela-who…? (@Rachel_Delahay) June 13, 2020

Director-producer Matthew A. Cherry, whose short film Hair Love won this year’s Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, retweeted Llewellyn’s post. It said, “Y’all really be proudly sharing these non-diverse writers room screenshots freely on the TL like it’s something to celebrate.”

The show primarily focusses on having a good strength of women in the writers’ room. But, it lacks a non-white charm to it.

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