‘Gone With The Wind’ Returning To HBO Max With Introduction From Black Scholar Jacqueline Stewart

HBO Max will re-release Gone with the Wind into its streaming library with a new introduction from black scholar and television host Jacqueline Stewart, Entertainment Weekly reported earlier today.

As The Inquisitr reported last week, the film was pulled from the new streaming service in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests that have broken out around the world in response to George Floyd’s death.

While considered a classic film, Gone with the Wind is also notorious for its stilted depiction of slaves as people happy being owned. The 1939 movie has drawn copious criticisms over the decades for trying to make slaveowners seem heroic and playing up the “white savior” narrative.

WarnerMedia chairman Bob Greenblatt later spoke with Jess Cagle during a segment of her Sirius XM show. He acknowledged that they should have put a disclaimer before the movie to discuss the many issues it “brings up.”

He added that they chose to remove the film and then “bring it back with the proper context. It’s what we should have done. I don’t regret taking it down for a second. I only wish we had put it up in the first place with the disclaimer. And, you know, we just didn’t do that.”

As for Stewart’s involvement, she currently hosts Silent Sunday Nights on Turner Classic Movies and will “provide an introduction placing the film in its multiple historical contexts” when Gone with the Wind returns to WarnerMedia’s new streaming platform.

She previously penned an extensive op-ed piece about the film for CNN that discussed the importance of these old movies and how they can provide “racial re-education.”

“If people are really doing their homework, we may be poised to have our most informed, honest, and productive national conversations yet about Black lives on screen and off.”

It is not yet clear when the movie will be added back to HBO Max. No official date for its return has been set. Entertainment Weekly claimed they reached out to WarnerMedia for comment and have not yet heard back.

People on social media seemed to have mixed emotions about the new introduction. Many users felt it was unnecessary to remove the film in the first place, while others think that the opening could encourage important conversations and help them view the movie in a new light.

Several users wrote that the movie need not be erased, but that it should be viewed with a critical eye, and they feel the introduction from Stewart could help first-time viewers understand how to do just that.

“People getting mad at this gotta relax,” wrote one person.