6 Times Fans Got Put In Charge Of Everything

6

A Riverdale Producer Was Almost Sued For His Gay Archie Parody

Riverdale is the current big hit teen drama. This hot and heavy take on Archie Comics finds Arch and the gang solving murders, battling gangs, and having all the sex we pretty much always assumed was happening off-panel anyway.

Warner Bros. TelevisionWhat, we were the only ones who thought Jughead was supposed to be a sex symbol?

Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa began his career writing plays, which are like Netflix but with real people and the audience has to wear pants. One of his early works happened to be Archie's Weird Fantasy, in which the iconic redhead comes out of the closet and pals around with famed 1920s murderers Leopold and Loeb.

The day before the "loving pastiche" was set to open, Aguirre-Sacasa heard from Archie Comics. While you might expect they heard about this revisionist take and immediately put him to work on more revisionist Archie stories, the letter was in fact a cease-and-desist. It turns out the company thought that a gay Archie would "dilute and tarnish his image." The play's producers were forced to change the characters' names, and the title was changed to Weird Comic Book Fantasy.

Years later, Aguirre-Sacasa would be vindicated. After penning the zombie comic series Afterlife With Archie, he was made chief creative officer of Archie Comics, which paved the way for Riverdale, which paved the way for you to be more invested in Ethel and Moose than your own friends and family.

5

Star Wars Fans Offered To Build Droids For The Force Awakens, And Got The Gig

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been criticized for cramming in too much fanservice, and behind the scenes, they even hired fans to provide a service. Instead of turning to beady-eyed desert scavengers hocking stolen merchandise, the production procured droids from a couple of guys who loved Star Wars. You'd think Lucasfilm would have R2-D2s lying around their offices like paperclips, but even the iconic robot was rebuilt for Episode VII (and thanks to that notorious glory hog BB-8, he spent most of the movie powered down in a filthy corner).

LucasfilmWho could've foreseen that a marvel of modern special effects might overshadow a walking trashcan from the '70s?

4

A Guy Who Draws Creepy Realistic Pokemon Art Was Hired For Detective Pikachu

Who is the world's greatest detective? Batman? That guy from CSI with the magically musical sunglasses? Well, you might want to hold your opinion until next year, when Detective Pikachu comes out. Yup, some Hollywood exec thought that tossing a deerstalker cap on the cutest Pokemon and sticking him in a neo-noir would make a shit-ton of money ... and they're probably right.

Warner Bros. Pictures"Instead of the iconic character design known the world over, could we make him look like Danny DeVito in a fur suit?"

3

Instead Of Suing Them, Sega Recruited Fans To Reboot Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog is Sega's blue amphetamine-riddled answer to Mario. And there are a whole bunch of Sonic hacks out there. One fan, in an act of deep betrayal, even made Sonic ride Mario's dino buddy Yoshi. And while Nintendo has a history of threatening to sue people for modding their games, Sega showed that they were the cool eccentric uncle of the video game world by giving these hardworking modders jobs.

2

Doctor Who Keeps Hiring Random Dudes From The Internet

An icon for scarf-clad nerds all over the world, Doctor Who will probably live on forever (though to be fair, any show working under the premise that the lead character can randomly transform into a new actor is probably going to have some longevity). Random people who hang out on the internet are a key demographic for the venerable franchise, and the show also keeps hiring them. One fan, Billy Hanshaw, made a new opening for the show as a visual effects demo, seeing the TARDIS hurling through a clockwork spacetime continuum.

1

Marvel Took A Random Fan Letter And Turned It Into Venom

You probably know Venom as one of Spider-Man's greatest adversaries, or as the star of that recent movie about Tom Hardy getting possessed by an evil Instagram filter. It all began in the 1980s, when Marvel (a meager comic publisher, not the cinematic behemoth it is today) had a contest for "aspiring writers and artists." And fan Randy Schueller suggested that Spider-Man should get a new costume -- namely a black one, so that he could "blend in with the shadows."