Disney Board 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?’
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?”
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“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. They don’t go to get a message.”
Disney has framed the proxy-vote campaign by Peltz’s Trian Partners as driven by a “longstanding personal agenda” harbored by former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter against Iger. Trian controls roughly $3.5 billion worth of Disney stock, 79% of which is owned by Perlmutter. Last year, Disney terminated Perlmutter’s employment.
As Marvel chairman, Perlmutter famously fought Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige over making “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” — on the belief that movies with Black or women lead characters would not be commercially successful — until Iger intervened to overrule Perlmutter.