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???
It’s like making a movie about Themyscira, (DC I know) and having one of the main characters be a man.
It’s been a minute since I saw Black Panther. But didn’t they shoehorn Martin Freeman’s character to add some white diversity as a token white guy?
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.
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.
Well, yeah. Do you not know the history of Black Panther? You just talking out your ass? The whole idea was isolationism in the face of colonialism.
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
The mother of a racist is always pregnant.
Time for an abortion.
Oh, there’s young racist fucks too.
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.
Hate to break it to you but the majority of Americans disagreed with interracial marriage until the fucking mid-90s.
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??
He’s also upset that the black panther wore a black suit.
Ghostbusters gender swapped the characters? AFAIK, is just a new team of ghostbusters that happens to be all women.
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.
Nelson Peltz is corporate cancer. He specializes in fleecing investors. He’s a far-right piece of shit. Fuck him especially.
If you’re angry about the critical and financial success that is Black Panther, tells me you’re not an investor, just a racist idiot.
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.
Good on you for admitting you’re a racist. You could have done it quicker tho.
American, you do not dictate your cultural heritage to the world. Go cry into the bloodstained flag of your failed state.
I’m not American.
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.
Martin Freeman is not black. Park Seo-joon is not a woman. Samuel L Jackson is not a woman—motherfucker.
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
And let’s be honest, it’s not like they’re pushing anything immoral, obscene, etc.
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.
Not that I have anything against women
Ahh, the misogynist’s “no homo.”
“My mother was a woman”
Ah, yes, the guy that forced his daughter to get a staring role in Avatar playing a 100% API role.
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.
Hell, I almost wonder if “a Marvel” is the best way his Boomer ass can articulate “a big-budget superhero project made by Disney.”
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?
