Damon Lindelof finally cried uncle on Twitter.
Maybe he was just sick of the negativity – and there was plenty of that directed at the “Lost” co-creator and “Star Trek Into Darkness” co-writer. Maybe he just wanted to focus on his writing projects, of which there are always many – and he clearly spent a good chunk of time on the microblogging site, where he was always frank, funny, and well-followed.
But the prolific tweeter deleted his account sometime late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, after a one-liner very much indicative of his mischievous social-media spirit:
“After much thought and deliberation, I’ve decided t” … was all it said.
Shortly after, his account was dead. (Or was it dead THE WHOLE TIME? Sorry DL — couldn’t resist).
Also read: Damon Lindelof Admits ‘Star Trek’ Strip Down Was ‘Gratuitous,’ ‘Misogynistic’ Moment
It’s entirely possible that Lindelof will resurface, and with his hundreds of thousands of followers intact, as Twitter has a “cooling-off” period before effecting a true deletion. That didn’t temper the reaction, however, none more pointed or succinct than Slashfilm’s Peter Sciretta, who tweeted:
You fucking assholes won, Damon Lindelof has deleted his twitter account. #whywecanthaveanythinggood
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) October 16, 2013
Lindelof wan’t just a Twitter user; he was an acolyte, openly praising the site’s power to promote projects and engage audiences – which he often did, with varying degrees of reaction. Though he had many fans, his @-replies tended to range from extreme outrage to even more extreme outrage, particularly when it came to storytelling, whether that was “Lost,” “Prometheus,” “Star Trek Into Darkness” or “Breaking Bad.”
Also read: HBO Orders Damon Lindelof’s ‘The Leftovers’ to Series
Lindelof didn’t write the latter show, of course, but he did write extensively about it in an Oct. 2 guest column in The Hollywood Reporter. In it, he praised the finale’s artistry, and admitted that he was still “deeply and unhealthily obsessed with finding ways to revisit the ‘Lost’ finale and the maddening hurricane of shit that has followed it.”
Therein was also a strong hint that a Twitter quitter was in the making:
“Alcoholics are smart enough to not walk into a bar,” he wrote. “My bar is Twitter.”