When it comes to ‘Ender’s Game’, it seems to be a never-ending stream of news. What’s the lastest? Well, Orson Scott Card is releasing ‘Ender’s Game’ sequels. Announced in the video below, Card describes it as:

“A new set of sequels to Ender’s Game, It’s for a YA audience, but it’s what happens to Battle School after the international fleet loses its purpose of war. It becomes what is called Fleet School and prepares kids to be commanders, explorers in the colonies that are going to be forming. We get to see as the school administrators repurpose the school, the Battle Room is still there, but it’s a whole different kind of education.”

I would love to be excited about these, but the truth is that there are a lot of reasons I am unhappy with — and confused by–  Orson Scott Card’s announcement.

It’s been a long established fact that Orson Scott Card makes large donations to anti-gay groups, and it has been a topic of controversy surrounding the film. Yet, even though some people have solaced themselves with the fact that Card doesn’t make money on ticket sales, there is still that one troublesome sticking point. That is, of course, that he did receive money when he sold the rights. Boycotting may not stop him from getting anymore money, but at the very least, it sends studios a message which is that the audience doesn’t believe in giving money to bigots.

While Lionsgate had promised the proceeds from the opening night  of the film to LGBT charities, this doesn’t necessarily negate the fact that this move was forced by the GEEKS OUT boycotts. Had there not been any boycotts, it’s fairly certain this would never happened.

You put all of that together with the timing of this announcement, which is on the heels of the opening weekend for the film, and it just simply smacks of money-grubbing. As such, when Card announces a sequel series to ‘Ender’s Game’, I have a strong desire to shake my head because I think it is fairly certain where the profit from these books will go.

Still, the announcement of the sequel is bizarre for other reasons. The movie, ‘Ender’s Game’, had a surprisingly lackluster showing at the box office. It’s projected to be in the red in terms of profits (making only 75 million of the 110 million budget back), and its audience lacked the desired youth audience, with 54% being over the age of 25. In fact, it’s already certain that no sequels to the movie will be done on account of the absolutely poor youth showing.

So, essentially, Card will be releasing books to an unwilling populace, and then almost assuredly giving the little money he earns to groups that hold strict and bigoted viewpoints. I suspect we will be hearing of more boycotts in the future.