Neither Mel Gibson’s face or name appears in the teaser trailer for the new Peacock three-part series “The Continental.”
The show actually stars Colin Woodell and is set to the “John Wick” universe. Taking place in ‘70s New York, where The Continental was a gay bath house, I doubt it was by accident that Peacock decided to completely erase Gibson from the promo.
Gibson will play a character named Cormac in the series. No further details about the role were revealed, but it’s said to be one of the main ones of the show. Of course, despite the erasure from the trailer, that didn’t stop some backlash from occurring.
“If I was too embarrassed to show a single shot of Mel Gibson in my trailer, perhaps I would simply not hire Mel Gibson in the first place,” Backstage’s Vinnie Mancuso tweeted.
You can find plenty of the outrage on social media, but I’ll just give as an example one Twitter user who posted, “Hiring Mel Gibson shows society actively doesn’t care about [domestic violence], racism, or antisemitism.”
Gibson was persona non grata for many years in Hollywood before making attempting a comeback around 10 years ago.
“The Continental” will mark Gibson’s first ever lead performance in a television show. The two-time Oscar winning actor and director was a pariah in show business after a 2006 DUI incident in which he made several antisemitic comments.
The comeback I mentioned started in and around 2010 with “Edge of Darkness,” “Get the Gringo,” and “Blood Father” were released — all three well worth a look, especially the latter. In 2016, he even received a Best Director Oscar nod for his war film “Hacksaw Ridge.”
Post-2016, with the rise of many social Justice movements during the Trump era, Gibson’s numerous controversies resurfaced and, really, since “Hacksaw Ridge,” he’s been staying out of the spotlight (unless you count “Father Stu”).
Gibson now makes B-movies. It’s hard to call them anything else than that, and “The Continental” is his first big project in quite a while. It’ll be interesting to see how big of a role he has in the series.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.