It’s not just Marvel fans that are fed up with how woke its movies have become. Billionaire Disney investor Nelson Peltz has also taken exception to the corporations' love affair with progressivism, noting that audiences are rejecting it's wokeness.
Peltz is an “activist investor,” which means that he wants to buy a lot of shares within certain companies, and then use them as leverage in determining the future of those companies (he currently holds a $3.5-billion stake in Disney). Peltz co-funded Trian Fund Management, through which he previously got sizable shares like Procter & Gamble and Mondelez International.
The billionaire is employing this same strategy with Disney and is in a battle with CEO Bob Iger for more control of the company. As an investor, he wants to see Disney turn a profit, especially through an iconic brand like Marvel. But those movies have struggled to appeal to audiences in recent memory, and Peltz believes it has to do with Marvel incorporating wokeness in its films.
“Why do I have to have a Marvel [movie] that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that? Why can’t I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-black cast?” he said.
Peltz was referring to the recent films “The Marvels” and “Black Panther,” respectively. While neither movie featured an all-female or all-black cast, they did incorporate significant doses of progressive values in each film.
Related: 'Punisher' - Punished To Death By Woke Marvel
The billionaire continued his criticism by saying that Marvel has lost its identity and therefore can’t appeal to an audience anymore.
“[Disney] say we [Trian Partners] know nothing about the movie business – we don’t claim we do – but I don’t think they do, with five big losers in a row,” Peltz said.
He’s not wrong. Of the 33 MCU movies ever made, only one of the past five releases was in the top-15 on the franchises list of highest-grossing movies:
- “Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) - ranked 18th out of 33
- “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022) - 14th out of 33
- “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023) - 26th out of 33
- “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (2023) - 16th out of 33
- “The Marvels” (2023) - 33rd out of 33. This movie set records for how poorly it performed.
Not all of them were woke (like “Guardians of the Galaxy”), but most had some significant element(s) of progressivism in it - or were just bad movies to begin with. Peltz was right, Marvel films are clearly losing their appeal because of the direction they are heading.
It’s unclear what Peltz would do to help change this if he got more control of the company. But he made it clear he wants to help Iger lead the company back to a respectable reputation and not fire him.
“We’re not there to fight. We’re there to help him,” Peltz said.
Part of that help would be making Marvel movies less leftist woke preaching and more actual storytelling. Otherwise, that iconic franchise will continue to tank.
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