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March 25, 2024 8:44am PT


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?’

By Todd Spangler


Getty / Marvel Studios


POPULAR ON VARIETY

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. They don’t go to get a message.”

SEE ALSO: Nelson Peltz Claims He Backs Disney CEO Bob Iger, but His Investment
Firm Withheld Votes for Iger’s Election to the Board



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 overruled Perlmutter.

In his 2019 memoir “The Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger described “the tensions that
had built up” between Feige “and the New York office” (i.e., Perlmutter). “We
had a chance to make a great movie and to showcase an underrepresented segment
of America, and those goals were not mutually exclusive,” Iger wrote. “I called
Ike and told him to tell his team to stop putting up roadblocks and ordered that
we put both ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Captain Marvel’ into production.”

Peltz, asked during the FT interview if Feige should be removed as president of
Marvel Studios, replied, “I’m not ready to say that, but I question his record.”

In a new statement Monday, Peltz’s Trian claimed it “supports Mr. Iger as a
candidate for the board and as CEO,” and asserted that its goal was to replace
certain Disney board members with new blood. However, Trian withheld its votes
for Iger’s reelection to the Disney board.


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