Tara Strong is less than pleased with Bandit Mill Animation following the announcement that her role as Bill the Orphan in Boxtown will be recast. Bandit Mill announced that they were removing Strong from the series following the voice actresses' controversial Tweets regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Southern Israel conflict was sparked by a recent series of violent attacks by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas against Israel neighborhoods and military bases.
The conflict is part of a much broader and older dispute between Palestinian Muslim forces and the reigning Jewish Israeli government that dates back several decades. However, the attack earlier this month by Hamas was one of the most violent and bloodiest in recent memory.
Strong came under fire for Tweets and re-Tweets that implied all Muslims were no different than the radical extremist Hamas and that pro-Palestine supporters are culpable in Hamas' terrorist activities.
In response, the Boxtown team took to Twitter to announce Strong's removal from the project after online cries that accused Strong of Islamophobia.
Part of Boxtown's message reads, "We believe that our public platform gives us a duty to be careful when it comes to hateful messages and misinformation online. This extends to our cast and crew. This was not a difficult decision."
Strong responded, "Just found out on twitter! This is what happens when you help fans get shows made I guess. Fired for being Jewish. Glad I helped you get your kickstarter money. Please lose my email address & pray for my family in Israel and in Gaza."
The kickstarter for Boxtown has two campaigns that raised over $62k. The adult-animated film noir comedy is aiming to stream the project on YouTube and Vimeo once completed.
Online discourse is now centered on rallying support for petitioning Marvel Studios to remove Strong as the voice of Miss Minutes in Loki season 2. So far, Marvel has yet to weigh in on the controversy but one has to think that they're aware and monitoring the situation.
Boxtown is an indie animated noir buddy comedy starring Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls) as a morally questionable con man detective who teams up with an innocent, true-crime obsessed orphan with a hidden murderous streak.