By Monique
There’s some grumbling going ’round the interwebs about Sleepy Hollow not making it to San Diego Comic Con as well as some grumbling about Betsy Ross possibly joining Team Witness (which isn’t going to happen). I’ll tell you why worrying about Betsy isn’t worth it and why the lack of Sleepy Hollow at Comic Con is actually great.
First things, first: Comic Con. There are fans who aren’t happy that there won’t be any Sleepy Hollow news at Comic Con. But instead of being upset, be thankful. Thank your lucky stars there’s no talk of Sleepy Hollow, because that would mean the crew didn’t learn anything from the S2 debacle and are rushing to show the fans that they’ll win them back.
This is evidenced in the tweets from Clifton Campbell and the writers.
It’s starting to come together, #Sleepyheads. Everything you’ve been missing and so much more. There’s no turning back…
— Clifton Campbell (@CCInnuendo) July 8, 2015
Get ready guys!!! Let’s do this #sleepyheads!!! https://t.co/G1UbcTOca1
— SleepyHollowWriters (@sleepywriters) July 8, 2015
It’s tweets like this that makes me even more trusting of Campbell’s leadership in combination of the core writing room leaders coming back into the fray. They are taking all the time they have to craft some very good stories for us, and I think they’ll deliver. Fans: you don’t have to keep wringing your hands with worry. Just wait and see what they deliver. I think what they’ll deliver will be something worth the wait.
Okay, onto this Betsy Ross thing. TVLine reported that the show was looking to hire an “Angelina Jolie” type to play Betsy Ross. Their version of Betsy is a spy who worked within George Washington’s Culper Ring. At first glance, she sounds a lot like Katrina, which immediately made fans upset.
Personally speaking, I don’t think Betsy Ross is going to be another Katrina, aka a white female character who doesn’t pull her own weight and is still expected to be treated above board, particularly above Abbie. The writers wouldn’t have issued the mea culpas they have issued through interviews if they hadn’t learned their lesson from the Katrina Travesty of last year. They wouldn’t have fired Mark Goffman and hired Campbell if they hadn’t learned their lesson.
Also, nowhere in the scoop does it say that Betsy Ross is joining the group. From what it sounds like, it seems like the character will just be a one-off character in flashbacks, like Abigail Adams (poor Michelle Trachtenberg–she got the worst kind of flashbacks that could exist; she could literally do nothing with that role). Why do I think this? Because there’s literally no place for her within the group, as far as the Ichabbie stuff is concerned. They don’t want the fans getting mad again and the show going off the rails towards cancellation, so they aren’t going to create another wedge.
If they did add another character, I’d think they’d lean more towards bringing back Abbie’s ancestor, someone who doesn’t have a stake in any Ichabbie relationship, but adds pertinent information and a necessary point of view, i.e. the black historical point of view, because we’ve heard Ichabod’s white point of view throughout all of our history books for centuries.
So these are my quick thoughts on Sleepy Hollow. Interesting news has come out, but nothing to get bent out of shape for. What do you think, though? Give your opinions in the comments section below! Also, make sure to follow COLOR on Facebook and Twitter!
P.S.—An impromptu campaign for me to interview Campbell has been popping up on Twitter. If you want to promote me getting an interview, just RT this tweet. You can add whatever vote of confidence you want 🙂
Photo credit: Brownie Harris/FOX
Julian 