Disney Foe Nelson Peltz Questions ‘Woke’ Marvel Films: ‘Why Do I Have to Have a Marvel [Movie] That’s All Women? Why Do I Need an All-Black Cast?’

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor 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. “Black Panther,” starring Chadwick Boseman, was a bona fide blockbuster, reaping $1.35 billion at the worldwide box office, while 2023’s “The Marvels” was a flop with a $206 million total haul. (The earlier 2019 “Captain Marvel” starring Brie Larson in the title role grossed $1.13 billion.) Iger, speaking last fall at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, acknowledged that Disney productions should focus on storytelling rather than advocating particular agendas. “Creators lost sight of what their No.

1 objective needed to be. We have to entertain first. It’s not about messages,” Iger said. On that point, Peltz said in the FT interview, “People go to watch a movie or a show to be entertained.