Mike Tyson Calls Hulu a “Slave Master” Over Unauthorized Series

As the release date for Hulu’s unauthorized limited series about the life of Mike Tyson approaches, the boxer has once again expressed his unequivocal disapproval of the project by comparing the streaming service to a “slave master.”

“Don’t let Hulu fool you. I don’t support their story about my life,” Tyson wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday, August 6th. “It’s not 1822. It’s 2022. They stole my life story and didn’t pay me.” In the caption, he added, “Hulu is the streaming version of the slave master.”

In a previous post, Tyson claimed Hulu tried to pay UFC president Dana White “millions without offering me a dollar to promote their slave master take over story about my life” and said he was grateful to White for turning the offer down.

Over on Twitter, Tyson continued to take the streamer to task, writing, “Hey @hulu I’m not a n****r you can sell on the auction block #slaveryisover #fuckhulu.”

See Tyson’s social media posts below.

Hulu’s series is called Mike and comes from the team behind I, Tonya. Starring Moonlight actor Trevante Rhodes in the titular role, the eight-episode show was created and written by Steven Rogers, who served as executive producer alongside showrunner Karin Gist (Our Kind of People), director Craig Gillespie, and Margot Robbie. The cast is rounded out by Russell Hornsby, Harvey Keitel, Laura Harrier, and Li Eubanks.

When the series was announced back in February 2021, Tyson called for a boycott of Hulu and said the streamer’s decision to tell his story “without compensation… is a prime example of how Hulu’s corporate greed led to this tone-deaf cultural misappropriation. He added, “To make this announcement during Black History Month only confirms Hulu’s concern for dollars over respect for black story rights.”

It’s worth noting that the rights to Tyson’s story belong to an authorized series starring Jamie Foxx with Antoine Fuqua directing and sharing executive producing duties alongside Martin Scorsese and Tyson himself. However, there hasn’t been an update on the project since it was announced in March 2021.

While sitting on a TCA panel about Mike last week, Rogers and others involved with the show addressed Tyson’s past criticism. “We actually couldn’t talk to him because his life rights were already taken,” Rogers explained. “For me, as a writer, a storyteller, I don’t really like to be reliant on just one source. I really like to do the research and get all these different opinions and then put a story around all of that. I don’t really like to be beholden to just one person. I think you get a better story out there.”

Gist added, “It wasn’t just about ‘let’s retell Mike’s story,’ but what layers can we add to it? What conversations can we pull out of it? What can we see about ourselves that we weren’t able to see back in the day when it was happening? What is society’s piece of it? So, you know, especially coming off of the last two years with this pandemic, and we’re taking a closer look at some of the systems in America that were undeniably disproportionately affecting, you know, Black men and Black people, having, bringing a story, putting it back in the limelight, looking at it through all the different lenses.”

Mike debuts on August 25th, with two new episodes releasing weekly.

Hey @hulu I’m not a n****r you can sell on the auction block #slaveryisover #fuckhulu

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) August 6, 2022

Hulu stole my story. They’re Goliath and I’m David. Heads will roll for this.

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) August 6, 2022

Hulu’s model of stealing life rights of celebrities is egregiously greedy #headswillroll

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) August 6, 2022

[flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flexi_form_style” title=”Submit to Flexi” name=”my_form” ajax=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”post_title” class=”fl-input” title=”Title” value=”” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”category” title=”Select category”][flexi-form-tag type=”tag” title=”Insert tag”][flexi-form-tag type=”article” class=”fl-textarea” title=”Description” ][flexi-form-tag type=”file” title=”Select file” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”submit” name=”submit” value=”Submit Now”] [/flexi-form]