Disney Reportedly Seeking Original IP To Cater To Gen Z And Gen Alpha Men After Ruining Marvel And Star Wars
A new report alleges that The Walt Disney Company is seeking original IP to cater to males between the ages of 13-28 or Generation Z and Generation Alpha.
Variety’s Matt Donnelly reports, “Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months, multiple sources tell Variety, for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way. ‘Young men’ is defined here by sources as ages 13-28, aka Gen Z.”
The report went on to share that they are specifically looking for original ideas “such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor.”
This report comes in the wake of The Walt Disney Company ruining both their Marvel and Star Wars brands. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy admitted that her entire strategy with Lucasfilm and Star Wars was to feminize the property. She said as much during an appearance at Fortune Magazine’s The Most Powerful Women Summit in 2015, “I think the interesting path we’ve had is the conversation that took place around consumer products. Because there were a lot of companies that were in place who frankly didn’t initially feel that Star Wars was for girls.”
She continued, “And when you have a company situation where between Lucasfilm and Disney, we were all looking at this situation saying, ‘No, with Star Wars we have to change this. We have to make sure that we create products that are in a sense appealing to both boys and girls.’ What’s wrong with that?”
Kennedy would go on to detail, “The fact that the company was bought by The Walt Disney Company has been amazing because they very much support the fact that we are trying to grow in the work force a number of women in executive positions and in all positions inside the company. And with the movies that we are making and with the protagonists that we are putting in the stories. So I get a huge amount of support with that.”
She added, “But we have 50% of our executive team are women. And six out of eight of the people in my story group are women. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would be surprised that we’re making Star Wars movies and the majority of the people involved in the development of those stories are women. And I think it’s making a huge difference in the stories that we’re trying to tell.”
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Former TV executive Paul Chato explained how the company ruined Marvel as well, “The princess culture of Disney could not leave the boy cultures of Star Wars and Marvel alone. The force was female, we found out.”
Speaking specifically to Marvel, he said, “In the case of Marvel, we thought we had an ally in Kevin Feige, but the princess culture shrunk whatever testicles Feige had.”
“Then we have the emasculation of the male superheroes of the Marvel Universe,” he said. “It wasn’t enough to replace them with female photocopies, but they had to be demeaned and ridiculed at every appearance and often kicked in the crotch.”
What do you make of this report?
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Disney is approaching this wrong and it will end in failure.
Their primary focus is "targeting" certain genders.
Instead of a good story, they're going to spew out another gender-blob of ugly message and repulsion.
Need to get rid of Disney "leadership." Need to replace them with Christians. They need to put out a good, Christian story. That would be real change - and meaningful.
Well here's an idea: FIX STAR WARS. Just do to the new stuff what they did to the old EU, or keep a couple of things and trash the rest. Cheaper than a new IP, which no one is going to trust anyway because we have no evidence that Disney is serious about changing their culture. Fixing Star Wars (and Marvel) through drastic cuts to canon, though, would go a long way to changing the minds that matter.