Fans were as influential in 2023 as the things they loved

Fandom may be something that people participate in in their spare time, perhaps in the privacy of online communities or conference halls, but it undoubtedly has an impact on the wider world. In recent years, the types of strategies deployed by politicians and leading social movements have become increasingly similar to those used in fandom. This is especially true of tactics developed within the digital and physical fan spaces to increase visibility and impact. Meanwhile, the fandom itself continues to change and evolve.

Driven by passion, fans make things happen. Sometimes those achievements are only important within each individual fandom: producing a zine, creating a character or celebrity trend, starting a new meme. But other times they reach further than expected, beyond the fan areas, and really get things moving.

Taking a look at the achievements of fandom communities this year is a good way to get a bird's-eye view of what exactly fandom is is, at a time when more people are engaging with fandom than ever. In 2023, fans showed up and made their voices heard. They launched projects, saved shows, supported strikes and even saved historical figures from oblivion. Here are just a few of fandom's most impressive achievements this year.

Fans on strike

When the Writers Guild of America announced that its members would be going on strike in May of this year, fans immediately took the news to heart. Of course, it was disappointing to hear that production on many fan favorite shows Stranger things, would come to a standstill thanks to the strike action. But more importantly, fans supported the actions of the WGA and later SAG-AFTRA, which were necessary for writers and actors to earn protection and fair wages in their industry.

Although some troll posts led people to believe that fans were against the strike, that couldn't be more untrue. It was quite the opposite: fans worked hard to spread information about how to best support the notable writers and actors. Independent, fan-run blogs such as sagwgastrikeupdates And fans4wga consistently communicated the latest news about the strikes and answered questions about the best way to avoid crossing the picket line with fan activity.

And while some fans were sad, the shows that came out during the strike were like fan favorites Good omens And Our flag means death, Never having traditional actor- and writer-focused press tours for fans to obsess over in addition to the new episodes, fans put their feelings aside in support of honesty. OFMD fans came personally to the picket lines and, when the strike ended, were rewarded with a flood of behind-the-scenes content that stars love Vico Ortiz And Leslie Jones shared on TikTok.

A plaque for Hester Leggatt

West End comedy musical Operation Minced has nurtured a Mincefluencers fandom since its days outside the West End at Riverside Studios. It's a strange show, just like the Broadway hit Six, was written and developed by a group of loyal Fringe Festival fans. And like Six it was also inspired by real history. Such as the Colin Firth film of the same name (with which it is otherwise unrelated) Operation Minced was inspired by real events during World War II, when a group of MI5 agents successfully diverted the Nazis by planting false information about a corpse.

The musical's main characters are based on real historical figures, including Hester Leggatt, a secretary at MI5. She contributed to the war effort by helping to create the corpse's false identity, writing love letters to “Bill Martin” that were planted on the body. In the musical, this work is immortalized in the tearjerker song 'Dear Bill'. In the song “Useful,” Hester thinks that instead of a statue, she might like to be recognized by “just a little picture / Something tasteful and small.”

Unlike the story's male protagonists, about whom many biographical details exist, little was known about the real Hester Leggatt – just enough to create her character in the musical. But fans went much, much further, unearthing biographical data at the National Archives and London's Imperial War Museum to illuminate details of Leggatt's life. Fans found census records, exam results and handwriting samples that matched the real letter from 'Bill'.

Ultimately, their investigation culminated in a letter from MI5 confirming Legatt's employment, which was secret information until then. A plaque honoring Leggatt will be unveiled outside the Fortune Theater, where Operation Minced plays on December 11. Hester Leggatt is finally getting the recognition she has long deserved, thanks to fans' hard work to uncover her story.

Save the sapphic show

Fan campaigns are not new, but their persistence year after year is a demonstration not only of fans' ability to self-organize and persevere, but also of the continued divergence between the priorities of studios, networks and streaming platforms and the desires of passionate fan communities. In 2023, these were among the shows fans got behind animated performance Star Trek: Child Wonder And the CWs Supernatural precursor The Winchesters. But the most notable fan campaigns were behind the canceled shows Its own competition And Warrior nun.

Passionate fans hungry for gay representation have helped save shows like Sentence8; fans have also united to campaign The 100 to change certain storylines. Its own competition was only renewed by Amazon in August of this year, and fans immediately began organizing, seeing that it was worth pushing back against this cavalier treatment. Fan campaigners behind accounts such as @ALOTOHomeRun have kept the show trending, hoping for a second season that will explore the queer and black characters that made the show a powerful adaptation of the original 1992 film. They've kept the show trending on X (formerly Twitter), and in return the showrunners promised it that they are still trying to find a way forward for the show.

Impressive show of support from fans for Warrior nun began late last year, when Netflix confirmed that the beloved drama about an ass-kicking nun (played by Alba Baptista) would not return for a third season. After creating a Discord server called Sapphics in Pain, the fans started organizing – and never stopped. Well into 2023 they were dedicate volunteer hours to analytical research papers and strategic analyzes at a professional level, with the goal of convincingly proving to network stakeholders that their beloved show was worth picking up for a new season. Their hard work paid off when executive producer Dean English announced that the series would return as a trilogy of feature films – although due to the lack of involvement from the original series' writers, it's a tentative win for the hard-working fans.

Swifties united

Photo: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

Thanks to the kick-off of the ubiquitous Eras Tour and the steady (re)releases of Taylor's version albums, Swifties consolidated their power and emerged in 2023 as an unshakable and unstoppable bloc. Swifties are behind trends like trading friendship bracelets And wearing glitter bootsbut there's more to it than aesthetics: Taylor Swift's vast community of die-hard fans have also used their influence to try to create visible change and move the needle on issues that matter to them.

In early November, Swifties in Argentina spoke out against right-wing political candidate Javier Milei, forming a group called “Swifties Against Freedom Advances” to try to convince other fans not to vote for him. In the end, though, it wasn't enough to move the needle, and he ended up winning.

Other Swifty fan efforts in South America are underway. A fan, Ana Clara Benevides Machado, died during one of Swift's Brazilian shows during an extreme heat wave. Fan outrage following this event was widespread, but American-language media was slow to report the incident beyond Swift's initial statement about the tragedy. Fans rose to the occasion to translate Brazilian news stories about event timeline and location issues, and even raised money for the family of the deceased fan. This culminated in Swift paying for the family to come from their rural home to attend her concert, wherever they were posed for a photo while wearing shirts with Ana's face on them.