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Interesting murmurs are being heard out there in the world of internet movie commentators. A schism could be developing at Disney between two key subsidiaries. Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios are going in very different directions now, and Disney is watching. The cause of the schism – studio activism.
If the early 2020s were notable for anything besides COVID impacts and strikes, these were the years that in-entertainment activism both went mainstream and started to get pushback. From video games and TV shows, to movies, internal leaks showed the activist class breaking cover.
In one notable incident, journalists obtained a video recording of an online call in which Disney Television Animation’s Latoya Raveneau admitted pushing her “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” into content.
Across the entertainment and gaming industry, these approaches were being trumpeted by the usual suspects in the hanger-on press.
The home of moronic hot takes
As revenues shrank and share prices tumbled, the pushback began. A major shareholder group at Disney declared in an open letter that:
“…Disney has abandoned its mission in favor of identity politics…”
Disney CEO Bob Iger declared that messaging was to be abandoned in favor of storytelling – what a novel idea! Meanwhile, their current most successful cinematic brand launched a massive course correction effort.
Film Threat founder Chris Gore referenced Marvel’s attempts to turn things around after a disastrous Phase 4 during his recent appearance on The Critical Drinker’s Open Bar podcast.
“I do know people who work at Marvel – they have cleaned house. They quietly, months ago, fired all the producers that could be labeled ‘activist’.”
These dominoes seemed to fall after Victoria Alonso was ousted from Marvel Studios. She was a loud activist voice internally. Gore says that there is some bad product still in the pipeline from earlier times that needs to be cleared, but after this, he says a return to form is possible:
“I think we’re gonna get a year of bad Marvel stuff. TV shows, you’ve got Agatha, you’ve got Ironheart, these two movies [Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts]. Fantastic Four, we’ll see. We’ll see how Robert Downey Jr. will be used.”
He goes on, as quoted by Bounding Into Comics, he says:
“Kevin Feige recognizes – basically, he said he tried it, it didn’t work. He’s talking about Phase 4. That’s it. Tried it, didn’t work. No Kang, none of these side characters that don’t have the legacy of classic characters. And if Deadpool & Wolverine proves anything, you’ve heard that phrase ‘male and pale is stale’? That was spoken aloud across studios. But if you look at box office this year, I would say ‘male and pale is money’.”
So what is the deal with Lucafilm? According to the online murmuring, they are very far away from course correction. In fact, they are doubling down on their approach. Gore referenced this on the same podcast:
“Lucasfilm is lost. They are doubling down on all the nonsense. You will never get anything good out of Lucasfilm and Star Wars. That’s it.”
According to the rumors, they view The Acolyte as a success as it ranked as the second most successful Star Wars live-action show on Disney+. As this was behind Obi-Wan Kenobi, it tells you all you need to know.
As a result of this, they are to continue on their current course, only harder and faster.
As for us, the merry band of Outposters? It will be interesting to be here to observe, over the next few years, if Marvel really can course correct, and how much clear blue water of success opens up between Marvel and Lucasfilm, sister companies, if Marvel pull it off.
The post Activist Schism Develops Between Marvel And Lucasfilm? appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
