Walt Disney Co on Friday said that remarks by activist investor Nelson Peltz criticizing the company for making movies dominated by female and Black actors is evidence that he shouldn't be on Disney's board.
Peltz, whose fight to join Disney as a director has become one of the year's most bitter and closely watched board battles, in an interview with the Financial Times said Disney's films have become too focused on delivering a message, and not enough on quality storytelling. He specifically took issue with "The Marvels" and "Black Panther."
“Why do I have to have a Marvel that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that?" Peltz said in the interview, published on Friday. "Why can’t I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-Black cast?”
Asked about Peltz's remarks, a Disney spokesperson responded: "This is exactly why Nelson Peltz shouldn't be anywhere near a creatively driven company."
I don’t know much about Peltz but I kind of agree that you don’t NEED to have all black or all women cast. The art should dictate it. But on the flip side, having an all black or all women cast isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Representation in media may not matter to some, but it can make a big impact on others.
Furthermore, most of Africa is black. What were you expecting out of Black Panther????
Everett Ross is associated with Black Panther in the comics as well... And is basically a token there. But his existence predates the Disney acquisition.
Sure, it isn't necessary, but would he say the same thing about an all white or all male cast? That's the default, so having something to show the default isn't the only option is good too. As a cis straight white man, I don't give a fuck if there isn't a straight white man in a movie. Why should I? I see myself everywhere being validated. Let's give other people extra space because they've been denied it for so long.
It's mostly not necessary, just like it's not necessary to have an all-white cast. In the last few years I came to realize that colorblind casting doesn't diminish great art, just like it won't help bad art to become better. I'm not saying casting should always be colorblind, but in sci-fi and fantasy movies I don't see skin color or gender matter at all.
I get your point but I mean Wakanda is supposed to be the most technologically advanced society. Why shouldn't diversity sort of be a given in that context? Because only fellow Africans can be trusted to keep the place a secret?
They completely cut off their society from the rest of the world, it's not like any African gets a pass in, they don't allow anyone that isn't Wakandan. It was like, a pretty significant plot point.
I mean why wouldn't the cast of the Black Panther be mainly black? That's just weird that you wouldn't have it that way. Also Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel are both female characters I don't know what this guy is after here. Why would he pick those examples?
They should do what the comics did when they were told there needed to be more white people in Black Panther and just have him start beating up the KKK.
Because whenever a movie or TV show or video game has anything except a cis hetero white man as the main character, people like this start screeching. They aren't satisfied with having people that look like themselves represented in the vast majority of main characters. They view any time a character not matching the above description shows up in some kind of media as discrimination against themselves. Any slight reduction in privilage they mistake for real discrimination. They mask this by claiming they're just concerned with the integrity of the art or some nonsense, especially the gamer gate type crowd.
Anytime a gay character or a female character or someone pops up they start yelling, "why does this character have to be gay? It must be lazy pandering at the expense of a good story." To which I would pose the same question back to them. Any piece of media featuring a straight cis white man, why does the character have to be a straight white man? Must be lazy pandering at the expense of story.
Or maybe, just maybe, it's more interesting to have a wide variety of characters and stories in media. Sometimes people are just gay, or are just straight, or just female, or just male. It might have a big impact in a story and it might not. It shouldn't be "unless this is a story specifically about the gay/female/black experience the character must be straight/male/white by default." If that is going to be part of that piece of media, great, but it doesn't necessarily have to be depending on the story being told. You'll never see this crowd upset with a straight white male character for these reasons though, very transparent.
Just ask where all their inclusive screeching was back when it was an all white male cast in everything. If they shut up back then they need to shut it now.
What all black cast is he talking about? And yes the marvels was all women but... They didn't even fucking gender swap the characters like Ghostbusters or something like that?
And out of all the fucking MCU it's the only movie with three female leads.
Edit- Jesus Christ I'm an idiot. It hit me. He's bitching that Black panther was about black people isn't he??
It was a reboot except women this time. So yeah... Gender swapping. Not trying to start all that drama btw... I honestly like the movie. I own it even. It didn't have shit on the originals that's for damn sure but... It wasn't the horror the internet made it out to be.
Ok I am about to argue that having an all black cast in Africa is in fact racist.
So I did a very quick look through the 20 "black" actors that appear when you search "black panther cast" in Google. I selected every one with a character name.
Out of 20 exactly 2 are actually from Africa. And they are both from south Africa, notably not anywhere near the central African region of the mythical Wakanda.
So as an example; not only did they get say 90% of their actors to play, say, new Zealanders from Europe but just as a kick in the balls they got the rest from Australia.
As if being a COLOUR would be some great gesture as opposed to a linguistic and cultural identity.
That's without even touching the numerous examples where marvel has done the opposite and just plain got away with it because it is a piece of European cultural heritage they are using for profit like in the cases of Little mermaid and snow white.
For the love of God just make good movies. People will watch watch whatever tripe Disney puts out that has a large enough marketing budget. But dear God have they put out some "successful" pieces of trash in the last few years. Largely being shit because of the forced diversity.
That's not even addressing the problem of Black panther not really having anything black in it aside from the name. If they had any real balls they would make a Luke cage movie and actually address the issues instead of putting the word black in stuff and printing money cos it has "marvel", "disney" and "black" in the same sentence.
Disney is without a doubt very agenda driven lately. Their "represetation" agenda is useless bullshittery at the least and actively harmful to the cultures it tries to represent at worst.
You don't think black panther "address(ed) the issues"? Did you miss all of Michael B. Jordan's character's motivation? Or did you just not even watch the movie?
I don't necessarily agree with you but I'm upvoting you for adding to the conversation, because I think you have some nuggets of truth but miss some of the forest for the trees. Particularly, that they did make Falcon and Winter soldier that addressed some of the issues you're talking about.
Regardless it'd be cool if Lemmy were like old reddit before it got big, where even if people disagreed with you they'd engage and dispute your points rather than just calling you a racist and hitting downvote. Just makes discourse devolve into "both sides" screaming at each other with their fingers in their ears.
Nelson Peltz was born in 1942. Maybe in 10 more years we won't have to put up with nearly as much of this bullshit since most of these out of touch racist fucks will hopefully be dead by then
I was out doing some outdoor work last week, and I've basically the skintone of a vampire so I cover up, so I had a big unstylish fishing hat with a neck protector on. And some kids from the local junior high mocked me in terrible Spanish as they walked home. (And by terrible, I mean I could identify how bad it was and I haven't had Spanish classes in 20+ years and never was fluent in it and I could still tell it was bad.)
I'm not even Hispanic, but it made me mad enough with it happening just one time that it hurts inside to know similar stuff happens on a daily basis to other people. And some of it totally comes from young racist fucks.
Fun story when they made that psycho Transformers movie with the laminated age of consent law and the product placement transformer made out of Oreo vending machines, Peltz's daughter is the teenager it's supposed to be legal to molest and Peltz was on the Oreo company board.
The Disney philosophy, at this point, is that people who have been unrepresented for years will take issue towards efforts that are not strictly made with inclusivity in mind and those who have been represented will accept it as progress, then the small few who take issue with “wokeness” will watch it because “it’s Disney”
Their gamble is paying off because lets face it, 90% of the world with a TV screen has grown up with Disney.
So while you might disagree with Disney’s take on X, Y or Z, that fucking mouse is so engrained on us that we will accept whatever bullshit they put forward
Yep. I've had no interest in watching the remakes but that's because I grew up with watching the originals as a kid but if I had kids then I would take them to see the remakes while they can watch the originals too. It's a non issue imo. The remakes aren't essential viewing for anyone.
AGREED! Why should I use BLACK ACTORS just because the movie takes place in a country with MAJORITY Black People? And WHY on God's Green Earth should I cast WOMEN to play FEMALE Superheroes?
Be careful with the "majority" part of it because that opens the doors for lots of racists to whine about how a lot of traditionally white characters are replaced by black characters. What you're looking for is that the point is they are black. Their blackness is essential to the characters.
For something like, say, the little mermaid, her being white is not even remotely essential to her character. Which is why no one should be even remotely offended by the fact that it has been played by a black actress.
Of course you can also swap in female for black and the point is the same.
Why would you have a movie set in Africa have a nearly all black cast? He's seriously asking that? Apparently you don't need basic intelligence to be a billionaire. How often does he ask why shows like Billions or Succession have to be about white families?
Where the sex or amount of melanin someone has isn't a defining characteristic of the story, it just shouldn't matter if you swap genders or whatever assuming similar levels of acting ability. Disney I generally see as a corporate whore, but good on them for sticking to this. Fuck you peltz.
While I agree with what you're saying, Disney didn't change the gender or racial identities of the characters he's complaining about.
Ms. Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel are all very well cast for their roles. They're practically plucked out of the pages of the comics, and match on race and gender identity from the source.
And Black Panther is about a super hero protector of a nation of black people. The answer to this racist's question is literally in the name of the movie.
While I agree with what you’re saying, Disney didn’t change the gender or racial identities of the characters he’s complaining about.
Fun trivia: Nick Fury is a white guy in the comics, but the MCU version with Jackson is so iconic I don't think anyone but the most die hard racist + comic nerd intersection people still complain about it.
Changing the design of a beloved character was always met with criticism and skepticism. When James Bond was made blonde by casting Daniel Craig there was as much of an uproar amongst the fan base as when Ariel was made black.
If a movie is good, people will accept the design changes, if the movie is bad people will blame the design changes. And some people just never get over the design changes and will refuse to give it a chance.
The discussion is just a bit more heated because of the current social and political climate. But that's mostly by people who don't even care about the movie and just use the topic to stir the pot.
Nobody said we were forced to. I don't want another one either. They ran superheros into the ground years ago. If they make another, I won't watch it. They're exhausting now.
An investor should not care about anything but box office and whatever grift is going on with "Hollywood accounting". To be concerned with certain aspects of the content being prouduced is counterproductive, especially for investors
And shouldn't be allowed near it since his opinions are detrimental to both quality and profitability.
I'm more concerned with the first but investors should really be worried about the second given his stake. Disney is vulnerable to conservative takeover with enough capital.
The two Black Panther movies combined have grossed over 2 billion dollars. I wouldn't say that agrees with him. It's also odd to assume that movies which didn't do as well, like The Marvels, were because of a female dominated cast and not because they were just bad movies.