Netflix streaming 'Titanic' after Titan sub 'catastrophic' loss sparks backlash
Oscar-winner starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet was last available on Netflix in August 2022
Titan sub search ‘captivated the world’: D’Arienzo
Psychologist Dr. Justin D’Arienzo discusses how the Navy may have detected the Titan’s implosion early on and whether the tragedy is similar to the Titanic on "The Evening Edit."
Netflix is facing backlash after it was announced James Cameron's 1997 epic "Titanic" will return to the platform on July 1.
The news came in the wake of the OceanGate Titan submersible tragedy on June 18 that killed all five crew members as it was descending the Atlantic to view the Titanic wreckage.
"Are they serious? James Cameron's 'Titanic’ will be added back to Netflix on July 1st after previously being removed last August. Love the movie, but this decision is really in very bad taste," one person tweeted.
Two others called it "BAD TIMING" and "SO WRONG."
"Titanic" will return to Netflix on July 1, less than two weeks after five men were killed in a submersible implosion while heading to the Titanic wreck. (CBS/OceanGate/Handout/Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)
Another wrote "Billionaire apologists gonna apologize" while two others deemed it "inappropriate" and "somewhat insensitive."
"Titanic" is among dozens of movies and shows coming to the streamer in July, and the Oscar-winning movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the tragic sinking isn’t the only deep sea-related film.
A documentary called "The Deepest Breath," about a free diver trying to break a world record, will also soon be available to watch.
Despite the outrage, Deadline, the Los Angeles Times and other outlets have reported the timing is a coincidence and the deal to bring the movie back was made months ago.
James Cameron, the director of "Titanic" and a deep-sea explorer himself who has been to the ship’s wreckage on the sea floor 33 times, weighed in on the submersible tragedy in TV interviews last week.
Cameron said he "felt in [his] bones" that an "extreme catastrophic event" took place as early as June 19, one day after the sub lost contact with its mother ship during the descent. A debris field was found not far from the Titanic wreck last week.
Suleman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood, Stockton Rush; Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Hamish Harding died in the OceanGate Titan submersible tragedy. (Engro Corporation, Reuters/Shannon Stapleton, @OceanGateExped/Twitter, Felix Kunze/Blue Origin via AP, OceanGate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
MANNED TITANIC EXPEDITIONS MAY NEED TO END IN WAKE OF SUB DISASTER, INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY SAYS
"For me, there was no doubt," he told BBC. "I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position, and that’s exactly where they found it. There was no search. When they finally got an ROV down there that could make the depth, they found it within hours. Probably within minutes."
Netflix reportedly made the deal to bring back "Titanic" to its platform long before the OceanGate Titan sub tragedy. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Following the announcement that a debris field was found, Cameron drew a comparison to the Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith, and OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, who built the sub and died in the fatal implosion.
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"I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many people died as a result," Cameron told ABC News.
Cameron also said many people in the submersible community were concerned about the Titan submersible. He said "a number of the top players" in the community "even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers."
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FOX Business has reached out to Netflix for comment.