….
The chat exploded again, hundreds of messages flying past in flashing colors.
Some were laughing emojis, some typed all caps NO WAY, others quietly dropped lines of agreement like pebbles into a roaring river.
He let the storm run for a second, watching it with a smirk, before raising his hand to the webcam as though steadying the tide.
"So… Let's not linger on the trailer." He continued, his voice lowering a notch, gaining weight. "And not even the movie, you have all watched ten, twenty videos dissecting every frame of it already. What I want to talk about tonight is something… different. Something no one dares bring up, even though it's staring them right in the face."
A pause. His eyes flicked to the scrolling chat. People typed 'say it', 'spill it', 'don't blue-ball us'.
"The thing is… most of you still don't realize the scale of the change Regal has already caused to this industry. You will only understand it a decade from now, when you look back and connect the dots. Because what he has done isn't just to make movies. He has rattled the very balance that's been untouchable for nearly a century."
The streamer leaned forward, elbows on the desk, speaking more deliberately now. His voice carried that weight of someone who had thought about this for years.
"This industry has always been ruled by five giants."
They don't need to advertise their power, you feel it.
Studios, networks, gatekeepers, and let me tell you, it's darker than you think.
These people say they 'saved' the cinema.
But I disagree they shackled it.
They told us stories about how they nurtured film, how they gave us legends.
Truth is, it's the other way around.
Cinema kept them alive, and they fed on it like kings.
The chat slowed, the laughter was gone, replaced by nervous emojis, people dropping cryptic half-jokes like "bro bout to get blacklisted lol" and "it's not Regal that might disappear, it's you?!?"
"These guys… they are fine, even great, they will let you rise." He continued. "They will even clap for you, as long as you don't climb too high, be respectful, play the role they have written for you, stay humble in their house - and you can do anything you want, anything at all. They won't stop you, let you build, experiment, even 'succeed', but… the moment you look like you're stepping into their territory? That's when the knives come out."
A chilling silence washed over the comments before suddenly breaking into waves of 'preach', 'facts', 'fire', and even skeptics calling him paranoid.
He just leaned back again, a half-smile tugging at his lips, and said quietly. "And Regal? He's already kicked down their front door."
He let the silence stretch before leaning closer. "I am not saying Regal is the first of his kind. There were others before him, plenty, but not like this definitely not to this degree. Take Ross, someone really close enough to Regal, the man should have been bigger than he is today. Yes, he had his flaws, his issues, but the way he was painted? As nothing more than a bitter, grumpy man with anger problems? That was deliberate, that's how it works. Repeat something often enough and eventually, people stop questioning and start believing, that's how reputations get broken."
His tone shifted, lower now. "Regal is different, he's not just threatening to walk into their territory - he has already planted flags, already shaping crowns, he is becoming the kingmaker. A title that, by all rights, the five should hold alone, and his also have close to zero flaws that can be put under a magnifying glass, that… that makes him dangerous. To them, at least, if they can't bend him, can't claim him as their own, then the only option left is to bury him."
A shadow of a smirk crossed his lips. "It's already begun, what we saw at the Golden Globes? That was just a glimpse. Even now, before the movie even hits theaters, there is this steady drip of negativity spreading everywhere. Over the most trivial things, that's not random."
He leaned back again, voice softening, almost weary. "Look, what I had said here will unsettle some of you, maybe most of you, and a lot of you will disagree. That's fine, that's your opinion, and I respect it. I just ask for the same in return, because at the end of the day, I love cinema. I want this industry to be better, cleaner, stronger, and yes… I hope Regal succeeds. Though if I am being brutally honest? The odds aren't on his side, not really. But that's just my opinion, and even if you don't agree… it doesn't matter, not in the end."
Just then the mention of Stephen Sr. dropped into the stream like a stone into still water, small sound, but wide ripples.
People had been spamming his name in the chat long before DG even brought him up, pointing out that he was a counterexample, proof that an outsider could rise and make it big without bowing to the so-called five giants.
DG's eyes narrowed as if he had expected that name to surface, almost like he had been waiting for it.
"Stephen. Sr!" Spammed across the comment thread, like a chant.
For some, it was confirmation that, yes, there really had been a man outside the machine who clawed his way into the halls of influence. They framed it as an allegory for Regal: if Stephen Sr. could once stand tall, why couldn't Regal?
But DG twisted the knife. "You are right - Stephen Sr. does fit the bill." He admitted, voice deliberate, drawing his audience in. "But you are mistaken if you think he was the one, he was just one of five, maybe six men, he had his moment, the power to actually change things… and for whatever reason, he walked away. Left his place behind when he could have made it better instead."
The reaction was instant and split.
Some applauded the honesty, saying DG was only being real, not sugarcoating history.
Others blasted him for tearing down a figure they considered proof of the outsider's triumph.
Threads spiraled into heated arguments, with some accusing DG of rewriting legacy, others insisting he was the only one brave enough to say it out loud.
The clip of him saying those words got clipped, remixed, spread across smaller forums and fan pages.
The line "left his place when he could have made it better" turned into a bitter refrain, some quoted it as a cautionary tale, others as an attack, and a few even spun it into memes, pairing Regal's face with Stephen Sr.'s shadow in the background, as if foreshadowing something great.
It wasn't the kind of viral wildfire that burns overnight, but it seeped, like water trickling under doors, into niche circles, into Reddit-like boards, into blog posts where people debated what DG really meant.
But many doubted DG's implication, and the skepticism hit fast.
Commenters began pulling receipts, listing Regal's trajectory like courtroom evidence.
"Regal… the youngest director to make a billion-dollar movie. How the hell is he supposed to just disappear?" one wrote, and that line got echoed, screen-capped, reposted until it became almost a counter-meme to DG's theory.
It didn't add up, the logic felt thin - why would someone who had already broken through, shattered box office ceilings, and proven himself with back-to-back hits suddenly fade into obscurity? Even DG's most loyal defenders stumbled trying to rationalize it.
Some chalked it up to envy, DG throwing shade because Regal's name was everywhere and his trailer was trending hotter than most blockbusters' actual openings.
Others thought it was DG's way of testing the waters, daring people to imagine a collapse that, on paper, seemed impossible.
And yet… in the middle of those arguments, a quieter group began whispering:
What if DG wasn't wrong? Hollywood had a history of chewing people up.
A billion-dollar success wasn't always protection; sometimes it painted the biggest target, they pointed to names who once looked untouchable and then fell silent - filmmakers who clashed with studios, actors who vanished after one scandal, creative voices that burned too hot too fast.
So the thread fractured, half of the audience mocked DG for spouting nonsense - "Regal's just getting started, he is not going anywhere." The other half held on to the unease he had planted.
The clip didn't explode into a cultural earthquake like some had expected, but it didn't vanish in silence either.
It stayed behind, simmered, shared enough times to reach the right eyes, whispered about in forums and private group chats, debated in corners of Twitter where industry gossip thrived.
It wasn't a tidal wave, but it was a steady ripple that refused to settle immediately.
The phrase "DG disappointed" began to surface, sharp and dismissive, often typed with that smug undertone people reserve for declaring something dead before it's even born.
But right beside it, as if in defiance, came the counter-shouts of "DG never disappoints", loyalists who clung to his track record, to the unpredictability that had defined Regal's career so far.
And yet, when the dust was counted, the majority leaned toward the supportive camp.
Not always cheerleading, but nodding along with the message of the clip, agreeing that there was truth buried in the man's words even if the delivery was divisive.
Many who had no strong opinion on Regal himself still shared the sentiment, that the industry wasn't built for someone like him to succeed, that the odds were stacked, and that if nothing else, his fight made for compelling theater.
But like all things in the digital age, it was only hot for a while.
The engagement slowed, new controversies arrived, fresher distractions pulled people away. Soon, the clip was like smoke after a campfire, once thick in the air, now only a faint smell if you really searched for it. The discourse moved on.
For Regal, though, it wasn't nothing.
Enough people had seen it, enough had debated it, enough had stored his name in the back of their minds.
The video may have disappeared from feeds, but the ideas it carried lingered quietly, waiting to resurface the next time his name lit up the headlines.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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