Why Johnny Rotten Hates Danny Boyle’s Pistol (& Why That’s Perfect)

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In a deeply fitting move, Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten resents director Danny Boyle’s upcoming FX miniseries Pistol so much that he is attempting to sue the creators of the series before it even airs. It is not unusual for directors, producers, and screenwriters working on biopics of famous musicians to face criticism. The creators of Walk the Line were condemned by the late Johnny Cash's children for depicting their mother, Cash’s first wife, in an unflattering light. However, given Pistol's subject matter, Rotten's clear resentment is actually a fitting tribute both to the band and the Punk era as a whole.

More recently, 2018’s inaccurate Bohemian Rhapsody was criticized for depicting Queen frontman Freddy Mercury as the member who broke up the band when, in reality, the singer was the last of the musicians to embark on a solo career. However, director Danny Boyle’s FX miniseries Pistol has been criticized for a far broader issue, and it is one that perfectly ties into the Sex Pistols themselves and their infamous punk attitude. Former Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) has threatened to sue Pistol’s creators again, after already unsuccessfully taking them to court once before, because he doesn’t want the band’s story to be mythologized onscreen.

Related: Michael Jackson's Biopic Must Avoid Bohemian Rhapsody's Blinker Mistake

While Pistols was in production in 2021, Lydon sued in an attempt to get his band’s music banned from usage in the miniseries. This attempt failed, perhaps in part because Lydon’s former bandmate Steve Jones gave the series his blessing, and Pistol is based on his autobiography. However, the Yesterday director's Sex Pistols miniseries continued to infuriate Lydon even after this