Nelson Peltz, the activist investor agitating to win two Disney board seats, criticized the company’s “woke” strategy — specifically questioning Marvel’s “Black Panther” and “The Marvels,” which featured Black and women leads, respectively.

The 81-year-old Peltz, who has admitted he “never claimed” to have experience in the media business, made the comments about “The Marvels” and “Black Panther” in a recent interview with the Financial Times. “Why do I have to have a Marvel [movie] that’s all women?” Peltz asked rhetorically. “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?”

“Black Panther” does not have an all-Black cast, nor does “The Marvels” have an all-female cast.

  • Stern
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    713 months ago

    Black Panther made a comical amount of money. The “Woke” strategy clearly worked.

    • Stopthatgirl7OP
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      543 months ago

      Yeah, but old racists don’t like seeing Black people on screen, and that’s what’s really matters, doncha know.

      • @protist@mander.xyz
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        3 months ago

        He’s clearly never even watched either movie, so his perception of them is probably based entirely on some far-right media interpretation he saw

        • Thassodar
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          73 months ago

          “They literally whip white people and make them feel bad for what their ancestors did in that movie!”

          • their media source, probably
  • d00phy
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    663 months ago
    1. Because Disney/Marvel wants more women going to see MCU content. 2. Because it mostly takes place in Africa… And they want more black people going to see MCU content.

    I thought this guy was a businessman. He should understand this stuff.

    • Treczoks
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      253 months ago

      “Businessman” does not imply “smart” anymore. Not even “successful businessman”. This is a good example.

    • @Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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      13 months ago

      Born wealthy. Went to a prep school before heading off to Wharton, Trump’s Alma Mater.

      Also, while looking him out, found out he’s Jewish. Wanna bet his supporters are gonna ignore that the next time they complain about Jewish influence in Hollywood?

    • @TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      -13 months ago

      Curious, does this person have a history of racism or what? Never heard of them

      Also why type the words “question mark”?

      • themeatbridge
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        33 months ago

        I’ve never heard of the guy before today, but the only thing I know about him is that he’s said sexist and racist things. How much additional history does one require?

      • @njm1314@lemmy.world
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        33 months ago

        I’d say the example is rather obvious. As for the question mark, voice to text is temperamental and I’m lazy.

          • @njm1314@lemmy.world
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            13 months ago

            Ah, I didn’t know you were the kind of person who just read the headline and didn’t read the article. Well that makes it simpler to ignore you. Laziness indeed.

  • Shurimal
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    533 months ago

    All this ado about “woke” this and “woke” that by the snowflakes… Pathetic.

    If Ridley Scott released Alien today snowflakes would have a complete meltdown—imagine that, a black man and two women (neither of whom look like teen anime waifus, the horror!) in a cast! And the roles were written as gender neutral, for crying out loud!

      • BeardedSingleMalt
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        123 months ago

        The black dude doesn’t die first, the women aren’t damsels in distress and actually survive and, turns out one of the women is actually trans.

    • @FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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      -23 months ago

      No… Alien is often used as an example of how to correctly make a strong female character. It’s not through lazy writing of a Mary Sue character. Honestly, I think the problem is they don’t really have good villains anymore that are a challenge for the hero. It’s like they’re afraid to show the main character having a weakness or a flaw to overcome.

      • Shurimal
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        63 months ago

        Oh, snowflakes would absolutely melt. Remember the gamers going “Waaaaa!😭” about The Last Of Us part 2? Or Horizons: Forbidden West?

        • @FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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          33 months ago

          But, I’m telling you that those people currently use Ripley as an example of a well written character. There will always be people that whine, but it wouldn’t be as many as you’re suggesting.

          • Shurimal
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            43 months ago

            …and I’m telling you that if Alien was released today snowflakes who complain about Aloy and Ellie would also enter a meltdown over Ripley.

            Duh.

            • @FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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              23 months ago

              But we don’t have to use a hypothetical. Because Alien already exists and is already used as one of their example of good writing. Like I said, some people will complain no matter what, but some are giving valid criticism. There are plenty of examples of things released today with actually well written female characters. For example, the Expanse was full of them, and those people weren’t complaining about them. Ignoring criticism just because of who it is coming from is how we get the current state of Marvel and Star Wars. Listening to criticism is how you go from Star Trek Discovery to Star Trek Strange New Worlds.

              • themeatbridge
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                33 months ago

                You’re being obtuse.

                Dipshits hold up Ripley as an example because Alien is an wstablished classic. If it were released today, they would whine about the movie being woke because they are dipshits.

                People did complain about the Expanse being woke, and continue to complain about it.

                • @FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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                  13 months ago

                  People did complain about the Expanse being woke, and continue to complain about it.

                  And there will always be a small group that will complain.

        • @Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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          -33 months ago

          People are really shitting on that chick from the new Fable game, but I think she’s cute as fuck. Just my worthless 2¢, anyway… Fable chick’s fuckable…

            • @Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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              3 months ago

              Lol, I looked him up and don’t see the resemblence. She just seems an average looking black chick with no make-up on to me. A little boyish maybe, but about what I’d expect a female adventurer to realistically look like.

  • @Gork@lemm.ee
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    503 months ago

    I see nothing wrong with all female or all PoC casts. Prey for instance (the Predator universe) has an excellent female lead and a great Native cast.

    Also this guy is 81, why the hell is he trying to get on the Board of Disney? At that age, working would be the last thing I’d want to do.

    • @RainfallSonata@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Because “working” on a board might require about 10 hours a month of your time, if that. You attend a couple of meetings where people tell you what they are working on, and then approve or reject the decisions they have made. And then you make bank.

        • Flying Squid
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          53 months ago

          I would agree, honestly. It transcends the basic action film format of previous films to tell a deeper story and still keep the action elements.

          • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
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            13 months ago

            I’m not sure that it really tells a deeper story tbh. What’s the deeper story?

            Story felt about the same as the original to me, maybe even a little shallower - if only because it rehashed the lore from the original. It’s been a while since I watched it, though. I def do remember it being hampered by it’s budget.

            • Flying Squid
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              63 months ago

              I would say the fact that our heroine has to deal with both the Predator and European colonizers while having to prove to her tribe that she is a warrior makes it a much deeper story.

              • @Wiz@midwest.social
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                23 months ago

                Yes, and both the Predator and the colonizers are both murderous alien races with future technology that she must overcome.

                I liked the juxtaposition there. I liked it even better than the first movie.

              • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
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                13 months ago

                I forgot about those subplots tbh.

                Prey, purely as an action movie, doesn’t compare to predator. Given your points about the plot, your argument that prey is a deeper movie is fair. But it’s not a deep movie, so I wonder how much I should care about the “deeper” plot points when it’s still shallow overall. It’s an action movie, after all.

                And yeah, some of the CGI was laughably bad and will age terribly. Predator still holds up as one of the greatest actions flicks of all time.

                Good discussion though.

                • Flying Squid
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                  73 months ago

                  I would also suggest that just by being a movie about indigenous Americans without doing any “mystical Indian” bullshit alone makes it a deeper film just by showing their culture in a way that was closer to reality, while still hitting normal action film beats. And the CG doesn’t bother me. CG films in the 90s can look awful and still be good.

                  Even before CG… Ghostbusters has some good effects and some god-awful ones. Like when Louis and Dana are transformed into hell hounds. It looks terrible.

              • @Aztechnology@lemmy.world
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                13 months ago

                I wish we could do less of the " prove to the tirbe/other men the woman is wortht" and just have the heroine be on equal footing from the start… I enjoyed prey but felt that plotline distracted too much from the other narratives. Just like in Alien Ripley is already well respected and does not have to prove herself to the others.

                • Flying Squid
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                  33 months ago

                  I can’t agree there. Her proving herself, overcoming her fears and showing her warrior spirit is going straight down Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey.

  • dharwin
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    413 months ago

    I am sure this guy also calls out movies with all-white casts, right?

    • @formergijoe@lemmy.world
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      523 months ago

      They should do what the comics did when there were complaints about not enough white people in Black Panther. Just start having Black Panther beat up the KKK.

    • cooljacob204
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      73 months ago

      I don’t really have an issue with it but that argument is kinda close to the people who demand that historical European movie have an all white cast.

      • @WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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        153 months ago

        I’m a PoC and I’ve never understood the complaint about historical European movies having all white casts. Tbh, I don’t think it’s a real thing, it’s just a small minority of agitators who complain about it on Twitter. Lord of the Rings is my favorite movie series, and that’s all white people and only three women lol.

        It shouldn’t be the only kinds of movies made. That’s one issue. And alternative history like Bridgerton sounds fun, if they make it make sense, such as in Thor where Heimdall is black and the other guy is Asian, but they explain that they’re aliens collected from a variety of planets and planes, and not actual Norse people.

        • @stoly@lemmy.world
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          53 months ago

          That’s because the people who complain are idiots. There have been people of color in Europe for as long as there has been a Europe.

      • themeatbridge
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        13 months ago

        Nobody demanded shit, though. It has a primarily black cast because it takes place in Africa. The underlying premise is inaccurate.

        Also, black people have existed in Europe for as long as there has been Europe.

  • @stoly@lemmy.world
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    313 months ago

    LOL imagine being so narcissistic that you think that what you want matters to the public.

    • @EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      23 months ago

      What a fantastic development for the Misogynoir% Category! The run had gotten really stale of late what with so much attention being put on the Transphobia% Run and a lot of us thought that the run had basically been solved and there were no big time saves left to be found in the category. This might even change the routing for the run as a whole! What a time to be a part of the Misogynoir% Run community!

  • FuglyDuck
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    303 months ago

    Somebody should ask this jackass why he needs a movie of all white men.

    Answer: he’s racist. (bonus question: why does he need them in tights?)

    • FuglyDuck
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      183 months ago

      I for one don’t.

      C’mon. lets get back real scifi. Like the OG Day the Earth Stood Still in style. More drama. more social commentary and less…pew pew and tinfoil bikinis. For anybody whose not seen it… the 1950’s version is a social commentary on mutually assured destruction and is still poignantly relevant today. (Also, you know the whole-Flying Saucer-lands-on-the-lawn cliche? yup. that’s this movie.)

      • @cmbabul@lemmy.world
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        33 months ago

        Hoping they use the opportunity of dropping Majors abusive ass to pivot away from Kang and get the fun of the Infinity saga back. Not holding my breath but I would love at least one really good Fantastic 4 movie that crosses over with the rest of Marvel

      • themeatbridge
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        23 months ago

        It’s been hit or miss, much like the Infinity Saga. The difference is saturation. They’ve made too many films and shows too quickly, and the bad ones lend credence to the complaints of bigots.

        When bigots complained that Heimdall the White was portrayed by Idris Elba, they were told to shut the fuck up because the movie was good and Elba was great in it. When bigots complained that Black Panther would include a lesbian relationship, the studio cut the scenes and scrapped the storyline. The Ancient One, the Mandarin, Jeri Hogarth, black Dark Elves, Zendaya as MJ, all the way up to the first gay man in Endgame, people are always going to find something to be mad about. Motherfuckers complained when Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury, and when the comics followed suit, the collective bunching of panties could have jump-started a nuclear reactor.

        The only thing that matters is whether the movies are good or not. Some have been good, others have not. That was true before Endgame, and has continued to be true.

    • themeatbridge
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      13 months ago

      Because the next one is going to be Deadpool and Wolverine, and it’s going to be a fuckton of fun. If that doesn’t float your boat, skip it. Movie theaters have doors and ticket takers and sound dampening walls. It’s a whole system designed to keep you from seeing a movie unless you really want to.

      It’s not like the MCU is preventing other movies from being made. Marvel Studios isn’t choosing between making yet another Fantastic Four movie or an arthouse film. Disney makes Disney movies. Marvel makes Marvel movies for Disney.

  • @Asafum@feddit.nl
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    3 months ago

    It’s so amazing that people put so much effort into bitching about something that they (checks notes) literally don’t have to do anything about.

    Do you know what I don’t complain about? Childrens movies. Super hero movies. Romance movies. Foreign films.

    I just… Don’t watch them…

    Hmm. What an odd concept. Don’t watch what I don’t want to see?? Preposterous! Every film maker must make what I personally want to see!

    • I like to compare the demographics of a cast to the demographics of the pool of applicants. If there’s a wild inconsistency, like an all-white cast in an area that is 30% white (NYC for example), chances are someone is actively filtering somewhere along the line.

  • SharkAttak
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    203 months ago

    You don’t need them, what you need is to make a good movie… if that has an all black or all female cast is irrelevant.

  • Flying Squid
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    163 months ago

    You do not have to have anything. No one is forcing you to go to those movies and no one is forcing you to join Disney’s board.

    You may not like that there are Marvel movies lead by women or black people but too fucking bad. Especially the latter. Black Panther is a major cash cow.

    • @treefrog@lemm.ee
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      103 months ago

      Yeah, this guy’s entitlement with the “why do I have to” line was pretty disgusting. Why do you have to have cartoon movies about mermaids? Oh right, maybe that movie wasn’t made for you 81-year-old white dude!

      Racist/misogynist dog whistlers going to dog whistle I suppose.