The Walt Disney Company has been in something of a creative slump the last couple of years, and it is showing through poor box office receipts and a low Disney Plus subscription rate. Disney bought Marvel in 2009 for 4 billion dollars and Star Wars in 2012 for the same amount. They bought both those franchises, in hopes of reeling in a floundering boys market, that the castle of princesses just couldn’t seem to acquire. But, instead of gaining that market, they turned around almost immediately after the purchases, and said that the Force was female, and that having white men in our superhero shows was problematic. What we also got, as a result of those purchases, were two named presidents of Star Wars and Marvel, Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige, respectively, that thumbed their noses at the fans and told them that both of these beloved franchises would be used as political platforms, reducing them to laughing stocks. With Bob Iger exiting on December 31st(finally), Bob Chapek has wasted no time in putting into place his plans for Disney’s future, and that includes a “relentless focus on the audience”.
Insulting the Star Wars Fanbase Will be Kathleen Kennedy’s Legacy
Star Wars has only produced a net profit of 2 billion dollars(and that’s probably on the high end) since Kennedy has been in charge(most of that due to the wildly successful Force Awakens), and still has yet to make up for the 4 billion dollar cost of acquiring Star Wars. Kennedy’s reign has been full of controversy, rewrites, reshoots, squabbles on sets, and a string of failures that are of her own doing, caused by a lack of respect towards the fans. Her entourage at LucasFilm has made it their number one priority to denigrate and insult the fans, because they had an opinion about the way Kennedy and LucasFilm were treating their much beloved characters. So much so, that we saw Star Wars archivist Pablo Hidalgo openly insult a multi-million audience YouTuber over his reaction to seeing his hero Luke Skywalker treated with reverence and respect on ‘The Mandalorian’. Kathleen Kennedy has so much hate in her , that she disrespectfully fired actress Gina Carano from ‘The Mandalorian’ , over a tweet she made about vaccine and mask mandates. This sent the fanbase over the edge, was the last straw, and saw a plummet in subscriptions at DisneyPlus. A subscription service, that Bob Iger and Disney had touted as the wave of the future, and sold to their shareholders as the next financial boon.
Hey @Disney @Lucasfilm_Ltd , why is your employee @pablohidalgo making fun of a fan who was moved to see Luke Skywalker in #TheMandalorian? "Emotions are not for sharing"? pic.twitter.com/6jbEf5E13o
— Mr.Roboto (@MisterR0b0t0) December 28, 2020
Kevin Feige Will Continue the MCU’s Destructive Conflict
Kevin Feige on the other hand, was a bit more deceptive in his plan to convert the MCU into the M-She-U. Although the MCU produced hit after hit right up until 2020, it is after that, that we have seen a significant decline in profits and story. Kevin Feige was named chief creative officer in October of 2019, which meant that everything coming out of Marvel from comic books, TV, and movies, ended creatively with him. And since that promotion, it has shown. Kevin Feige never liked the direction the MCU was going with an all white male lead string of hits. And in 2012, during the filming of ‘The Avengers’, he made his concerns known to Ike Perlmutter, who was head of Marvel Entertainment at the time. Feige told Perlmutter that he would like to see more female representation in the MCU. Ike Perlmutter disagreed with Feige’s premise, so Feige tattle-taled to Bob Iger, who subsequently had Feige begin to report to Alan Horn, instead of Perlmutter. This started the decline even though it wasn’t immediately visible. Although Feige can claim some credit for the box office successes of phases 1-3 of the MCU, the creative decisions weren’t all his, thank God. With phase 4, however, the fans know exactly where Kevin Feige stands when it comes to how the fans favorite characters are represented. With all four new Marvel Disney Plus shows dividing fans because of woke politics and telling them they need to do better, and Marvel’s last three box office installments falling flat with fans, and not making a profit, Disney entertainment is flailing about, not able to find its footing, because of self inflicted controversy. Marvel and Star Wars aren’t the only ones failing as well. Disney’s ‘Mulan’, ‘Encanto’, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’, ‘Cruella’, and ‘Jungle Cruise’, all flopped and didn’t make a profit. The house of mouse is failing big time, and Bob Chapek now has the freedom to potentially fix things.
Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow Propaganda is Hateful and Divisive
I’m not a big Bob Chapek fan, as some are in the independent content creator universe are. Bob Chapek has allowed division and hate to grow in Disney, and the only evidence you need, is the diversity and inclusion propaganda that is their Reimagine tomorrow campaign. This campaign is trying to indoctrinate kids, employees, and fans into thinking that you are a bad person because you have white privilege and are white supremacists. It is hateful and divisive, and will only continue to hinder creativity. Bob Chapek, in my opinion, needs to get rid of that first and foremost before anything else has a chance of succeeding…but we shall see. What’s promising, though, are the three pillars that Chapek has outlined, in a memo he released, that will focus on how Disney will be successful going forward.
Storytelling excellence. What makes Disney so unique is that the stories we tell mean something to people. They inspire, give hope, bring us together, illuminate the world around us, and create memories. That is Disney magic, and we must continue to set the creative bar higher and higher. To that end—and in addition to all my other creative meetings—I am establishing a new standing monthly meeting with our senior creative leaders to discuss the opportunities we face as a storytelling enterprise. This will encourage collaboration, sharing of best practices, and stimulate cross-studio ideation.
Innovation. Since Steamboat Willie, we have been the world’s foremost innovative storytellers. That must continue as technology evolves, giving our creative teams new canvases like the metaverse on which to paint. We should be especially innovative as we seek to bring stories to life in new ways—particularly if they enhance what many call our “franchise ecosystem,” which is one of the things that sets us apart.
Relentless focus on our audience. We are a big company with many constituents and stakeholders, all of whom have a place in our decision-making. But at the end of the day, our most important guide—our North Star—is the consumer. Right now, their behavior tells us and our industry that the way they want to experience entertainment is changing—and changing fast thanks to technology and the pandemic. We must evolve with our audience, not work against them. And so we will put them at the center of every decision we make.
A Relentless Focus on the Audience
That last pillar is key and the most crucial of those pillars. I think that Bob Chapek understands why Star Wars and Marvel are failing, but was always hindered by Bob Iger’s constant intrusion into the decision making during Chapek’s run as CEO thus far. When Chapek states that the consumer is the most important guide, in what is deemed successful, I believe he knows and understands that what Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige have been doing to fans’ favorite characters, is antithetical to what the fans want. Case in point…it is rumored that Chapek confronted Kevin Feige on his plans to replace Tony Stark with Riri Williams as the new Iron Man. Another failed comic book character that Feige wants to put on the big screen all in the name of representation. According to the rumor, Chapek knew about Riri Williams as a failed comic book character, and didn’t think that that was the best idea, and would only succeed in degrading the original Iron Man, much like Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson did to Luke Skywalker in ‘The Last Jedi’. Additional evidence, are the extensive reshoots that Dr. Strange and Ms.Marvel are undergoing. These aren’t 2 or 3 days reshoots mind you, these are six week plus reshoots. That alludes to rewrites in story. Remember, it was Kevin Feige who said last year, that the reason Dr. Strange, the most powerful sorcerer in the Marvel universe, couldn’t make an appearance in WandaVision, was because he was a white guy that would overpower Wanda in the show, and we couldn’t have that. More evidence that Chapek is shutting down the vitriol towards fans, is with Kathleen Kennedy not having creative control or power, over almost anything Star Wars. She has been reduced in power like the Queen of England. Even more promising, is that in his first pillar, Chapek talks of having monthly meetings with the heads of all of the major studios to discuss storylines etc. This is a stroke of genius, and puts people like Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy in the hot seat, essentially having to defend their woke decisions against the fans wishes, and in front of their peers…embarrassing.
Kevin Feige Will Not be Able to Withstand Another Failure
If Bob Chapek is true to his word, and wants to create stories and content that the fans actually want to see, maybe Disney can turn it around, and be the once great pillar it was in the entertainment industry. Maybe the reshoots for Ms. Marvel, Dr. Strange, and Indiana Jones 5, are a sign of Chapek’s commitment to the fans. I’m not convinced yet, because we are still seeing him tout the Reimagine campaign, which promotes the fallacy of white privilege and white supremacy. I’m hoping that Bob Chapek is playing the long game, and will hold Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy to account for their mindless pursuit of representation over story. Our first glimpse of this might be with the new Dr. Strange movie. Will Dr. Strange be the main focal point of his own movie, or will Wanda take over as the dominant hero, belittling Dr. Strange in the process? Either way, if Dr. Strange fails at the box office, that might spell impending doom for Mr. Feige, and I’m sure Bob Chapek doesn’t want another failure attached to the house of mouse.
Related: Kevin Feige Fails With Eternals
