A Theory on Modern Adaptations, Trouble at Disney, Beau DeMayo's Firing, MCU Update, Red Sonja Update, Neil Gaiman Update, and Ashley Johnson's Lawsuit

I heard a plausible theory about why some people don't care about continuity and lore in IPs (it's from Madam Savvy, 23:09-23:33). Her belief is that this comes out of fanfic communities (she specifies Tumblr, but I believe it applies more broadly), where the point is to create a new continuity that serves the (usually romantic) ambitions of the writer. The original work becomes background material to create something new and only matters as a point of reference. This theory makes sense to me because it fits with how writers in the current era approach source material. It also explains their bewilderment and frustration with the majority who don't see it this way, as from their frame of reference change is the point.

You can see how the fanfic approach can work in projects aimed at women where romance is the key element: Barbie, Bridgerton, Wednesday, Riverdale, etc. In these shows the source material is just a springboard to do whatever the creators want. Fanfic is dominated by (and mostly consumed by) women, so shows with that audience are open to that approach. In terms of popular taste this seems to only work in situations where romance is key. This approach largely fails with male audiences. Men, who also tend to be more interested in war and history, tend to put more emphasis on lore and continuity (a staple in comics, classic fantasy, and so on). The one exception to this rule, at least in the US, is older Hispanic men, who will seemingly watch anything, but they are too small a market to save any of these projects.

One of the other related elements to this, in the wake of The Acolyte being cancelled and rumours of Doctor Who not being renewed beyond its second season, is the lack of introspection from their (few) fans. There's no acknowledgement that the product is too niche for most. No one reflects on that if the show is meant for a modern audience, why isn't that audience showing up? We are far removed from the network television days where time slot matters, so a small audience isn't due to executive interference (ala Firefly), it's a deliberate cold shoulder from viewers. Genre fans (Lord of the Rings, D&D, comic books, Star Trek, etc) all begin as niche communities and are taken for granted by modern adapters. Niche communities are heavily devoted to their IP, but that comes with heavy expectations that if not fulfilled, makes them enraged or indifferent. This fanfic mindset is omnipresent in interviews with Jessica Gao, Mindy Kaling, Leslye Headland, Zack Snyder, Alex Kurtzman, Lauren Hissrich, etc--they just don't get how or why this doesn't work.

This is an update less about breaking news than about shifting views in the industry. Last September CNBC put out a report on the Bog Iger/Bob Chapek drama at Disney that lead to the latter's dismissal and the return of Iger. Now The New York Times is repeating the same information, but this time it's receiving broad coverage, suggesting that criticism of Iger is being permitted (no doubt due to Disney's continued struggles, with its primary success being the IP Chapek pushed forward, Deadpool vs Wolverine). In terms of the substance, it just repeats that Iger thought Chapek was a 'yes man' for him to continue ruling without the position, and when that didn't happen he sabotaged Chapek's position. All the fails on Chapek's watch were Iger projects and that seems to have sunk in to some extent.

I never spoke about Beau DeMayo's surprising dismissal from the animated reboot of X-Men 97 (something I did not watch because, despite enjoying the X-Men comics that it was based on, I wasn't a fan of the 97 series) back in March, although I did mention Beau tossing the writers of The Witcher and Witcher: Blood Origin under the bus for hating the source material (which wasn't surprising, but having it said was amusing). DeMayo finished writing for the second season after which he was fired without explanation. As a gay black man, it was a surprise move by Disney (it's hard not to connect this to Chris Gore's claim that Disney was pushing out activists) and now (August) they are claiming he was fired due to sexual impropriety (according to the usually reliable Jeff Schneider, it was for sending explicit photos of himself to young male staffers for 'inspiration', as well as groping an assistant--this kind of behaviour is also allegedly why he was let go from The Witcher). I don't know if any of that is true and DeMayo is threatening legal action, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Lost in all this is that the reboot was (relatively) popular, unlike the rest of the MCU on D+.

Rumour-monger RPK (who has a mixed track record) is reiterating a rumour from The Direct that both Blade and Armor Wars are near to being scrapped. You'll be forgiven for thinking the latter, a War Machine vehicle, was already scrapped (no news since 2022), but that's technically not the case. As for Blade, given it's innumerable issues (mostly due to star Ali rejecting Disney's various terrible notions, cf), this would not be very surprising, albeit embarrassing to Disney. Neither sources for this are consistently reliable, but both are MCU shills so it's less likely for them to invent this for clicks. I'd consider Armor Wars gone and Blade as possibly gone.

There hasn't been a meaningful Red Sonja update in over a year, but we finally got one which simply reiterates that the film still can't find a distributor. Andre's theory (link above) that the film is too much a product of a bygone era to seems entirely on-target. What had been a typical modern era girl boss film was toned down by the director, but that basis remains such that it's unlikely to appeal to anyone. We won't know for sure until it appears, but I have to wonder at this point if it ever will appear and that may be for the best.

Fallout for the numerous Neil Gaiman accusations is finally starting to happen. He's had one project, based on The Graveyard Book (2008, whose production has floated around since 2009), cancelled by Disney due to the allegations. Shortly after that, a third season of Good Omens (a show that didn't need a second season, much less a third) has also been cancelled by Amazon for the same reason. That leaves his Sandman series on Netflix still ongoing, although it's spinoff (Dead Boy Detectives) was cancelled after one season (illustrating again that 'critically-praised' has nothing to do with anything)--it's less clear if this was based on the charges or not. Gaiman is up to seven accusers and his second ex-wife has intimated there might be a dozen more, so it will be interesting to see what happens to Sandman and his career generally. There's been no follow-up on Chuck Wendig, as no one has (yet) come out to accuse him, so despite hearing he has a similar reputation nothing is on the docket.

Much more under the radar is the Ashley Johnson court case (now best known for Critical Role, but also for The Last of Us, The Avengers, and so on). About a year ago she joined a lawsuit against her ex, Brian Foster. The suit itself was reported on and then Johnson, on her own, attempted to get a restraining order in place, but six months ago this was dismissed with prejudice and Foster made a counter suit to recover the legal costs (peanuts for Johnson, but very costly for Foster). No one has covered this and I have no idea how it was resolved. In the meantime, the group has dropped their controversial lawyer, but the suit itself continues (in the article Foster implies that the lawyer played a large role in the suit being filed in the first place, something he has an incentive to claim, but doesn't mean it's not plausible). This is a rare case where a much more famous individual has sued their partner and the tea leaves do not read well for Johnson. I'm curious to see what happens and while normally a case like this would be resolved in an out of court settlement, Foster's reputation is ruined, so I expect he has to see this through and win to reclaim it (he's beyond the point of what happened to Chris Hardwick, who was cancelled at the height of the Me-Too movement in 2018, only to be quickly returned to his position when his accuser refused to cooperate with an investigation and said she simply wanted to 'move on').

It has been four years since the Midnight's Edge drama between MechaRandom42 and Tom Connors and I was curious how the former was doing when the dust settled. Clearly it has been a disaster for her, with the channel struggling to get 1k views for videos. That reality has nothing to do with who was right or wrong in the dispute, but it is interesting (albeit not surprising) to see she could not maintain viewership without the connection (all her co-hosts on Midnight's Edge After Dark who took her side also seem to have disappeared into oblivion). The commentary space is very crowded and visibility is difficult to obtain and even harder to keep.

A final note. As the economics of the DEI/ESG strategy fails in the entertainment sphere, to the point where it begins to threaten the companies promoting it, it's created a conundrum for CEOs. How to get rid of the least competent people screaming about it without being criticized for the hypocrisy? In some cases this is done quietly (payouts with NDAs), but I've noticed a tactic made possible by the Israel-Palestine conflict. This situation is one of the only ones where self-described progressives actually oppose the establishment by supporting Palestinians (a scenario where the anti-establishment right supports the establishment, so there's no counternarrative to be concerned with). This allows the establishment to use DEI rules to deplatform people who are otherwise sacrosanct. Folks who are fully onboard with the entire theology are being cast out because support of Palestinians is construed as 'antisemitism'. It's notable that few (any?) people in positions of corporate power are saying anything about the conflict and I think it's entirely for this reason (despite being the perfect scenario for the supposedly anti-colonial, anti-white, anti-Western ideology). Organizations like the SFWA, who have been loyally singing the DEI song for years, have been kicked out using this as leverage. These removals is not an indication of any major shift in policy, but merely a way to excise elements that interfer with the important matter of making money. What I'd expect as a result of this is an effort to continue the policies with less noise, going the Baldur's Gate 3 route of having it everywhere but without the incessant shrieking.

This article was written by Peter Levi

MCU Changes Course, Assassins Creed Fiasco, Neil Gaiman Accusations, and More

Chris Gore, who is not a scooper, but is well connected in Hollywood, had this to say about Marvel:

I do know people who work at Marvel. They have cleaned house. They quietly, months ago fired all the producers could be labeled activist. ... Kevin Feige recognizes… basically, he said that we tried it, it didn’t work. He’s talking about Phase 4. It didn’t work. No Kang. None of these side characters that don’t have the legacy of classic characters [The Eternals, Shang-Chi, etc]. And if Deadpool and Wolverine proves anything, you’ve heard that phrase ‘male and pale is stale,’ that was spoken aloud across studios, [it was wrong.] ... Additionally, they fired people that don’t know the comics. … But it’s going to be a sea change that will take years. Years. That’s why they are announcing this [RDJ as Doctor Doom] now. ‘We know we screwed up and failed, but look at what’s coming.'

There's independent confirmation of some of this from THR (link above) along with vague comments from Feige himself and the firing over a year ago of Victoria Alonso. However, Nate Moore (responsible for The Eternals, among other things) remains, so Gore's comment that all the activist producers is gone is hyperbole. If Gore is right and if Feige goes back to proper planning and competent writers, it means there's a chance the MCU could rebound...maybe. Dare I hope for a comic accurate Alpha Flight? Probably not, but perhaps the Cavillrine (ahem, Henry Cavill as Wolverine)...maybe. It would be a relief to go back to writing positive articles about the MCU, but we're far away from that (I did enjoy Deadpool & Wolverine, despite it's plot issues and reliance on memberberries--see below).

To speak briefly about the film (beyond the comments above that yes, I did enjoy it), the most amusing thing to me in the cameo-stuffed affair was: 1) Jennifer Garner could have played an interesting Elektra if she'd had a better script, 2) the Channing Tatum Gambit (eventually killed by the Fox purchase) could have been interesting with the right script, 3) nothing can make the TVA or multiverse interesting, 4) Ryan Reynolds couldn't find anything worth keeping (in terms of characters) from the prior Deadpool films (people forget what a mess Deadpool 2 was--some of the weakest elements in this film were Vanessa and Peter, but at least we were saved from a Domino cameo).

I wanted to comment on the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows, not due to an attachment to the franchise, but because of the ridiculous arguments Ubisoft has used in response to the negative reaction from Japanese players to their 'creative' history. Ubisoft is saying their changes to the historical Yasuke are no different than in their other iterations of changing historical peoples and periods. The reason I describe this as ridiculous is, if that was the case, why be so faithful to everything else in the game and advertise it as faithful? Marketing prior to the controversy stressed authenticity, so moving away from that only when it's convenient is hypocrisy. Beyond that, if the past is simply a canvas to do whatever you want with, why use a historical figure like Yasuke? They could have easily gone the nonsensical diversity route seen in Baldur's Gate 3 or the Dungeons & Dragons movie. Ubisoft can't have it both ways. The truth is Assassins Creed looks authentic because Ubisoft knows the Japanese audience and those who enjoy that setting demand it, but the ESG/DEI money they receive demands that Yasuke be some kind of hero/superstar. The company can't confess this because it's not permitted when you take blood money from Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street. The other aim in Ubisoft's statement is to protect Sweet Baby Ink, who are the leads in the creative decisions for Yasuke. What's funny about this is if Ubisoft had simply done things honestly and included Yasuke more reasonably, no one would complain (putting aside arguments that he actually was a samurai--that's not the only way for a character to be important).

I think it's worth talking about Neil Gaiman, as he's an interesting example of how reluctant progressives can be to cancel their own. For those who have not heard (and it seems like many have not, much like the accusations against MrBeast or his friend Ava Kris Tyson), Gaiman has been accused of sexual assault by five women, with some incidents going back to the 1980s. None of this has been proven, but unlike with Scott Lynch and others, it's not simply one accuser. We don't know if Gaiman is guilty, but other than Jian Ghomeshi (3 accusers) and possibly Marilyn Manson (6, with Manson countersuing and that suit isn't resolved), it's hard to find a case with multiple accusers where there hasn't been some malfeasance. What's most likely to occur is a financial settlement with an NDA, but time will tell.

What I'm curious about are the consequences. People like Vaush and others have skated on seemingly serious allegations (grooming etc, similar to Tyson above), yet the much tamer ones against the progressive Joss Whedon and Johnny Depp derailed their careers. Gaiman, much like Whedon (or Chuck Wendig or George R. R. Martin etc), is a self-described feminist who talks about his progressive leanings incessantly (and unfortunately he's engaged in fan-baiting). We now have to wonder how much of that was simply a cover for his alleged impropriety. I suspect, given the number of accusers, that Gaiman will be forced to step away for a time (saving us from his miserable Sandman/Good Omens series perhaps), but we shall see. The much less famous Wendig (whose reputation for inappropriateness with women is apparently similar to Neil's) seems to have escaped thus far (his Wiki is scrubbed clean and there are no independent articles--you only learn of this by reading about Gaiman).

Speaking of cancelled people, Lindsay Ellis, who went into self-imposed exile after an incident two and a half years ago, has re-emerged. She never went away entirely (they never do), as she's been publishing novels, but has recently returned to the YT space (almost certainly due to a mix of financial needs and a desire for attention). I'm not saying I think Ellis should have had to leave--cancelling is absurd and often punishes innocent people--but given how much time she'd spent previously screaming and advocating it for others, it was an appropriate Karmic punishment.

This article was written by Peter Levi

Silk cancelled, Captain America 4 and Blade Troubles, Dragonlance Foibles, and More

I haven't been posting as much due to the embarrassing state of entertainment. I can derive some enjoyment in hilariously awful things like Rebel Moon (here's a great review), but it's sad that there's so little quality material to consume anymore. Things are so bad that middling fair like Fallout gets a pass based largely on aesthetics and 'it wasn't as bad as we thought' (a review)--it's a bit like Stockholm Syndrome. With that said, there are some things I wanted to go over.

In May we came to the conclusion of the long running Silk IP saga. Announced as a live-action film by Sony back in 2018, it transitioned into an animated project, then into a solo TV-series pitched to Amazon in 2020. Almost three-years later Amazon has passed on the series due to disinterest in the character. The failure of the MCU's Ms. Marvel (2022), Echo (2024), and Madame Web (2024), likely played a role in that decision.

Falcon's Captain America film is getting another round of reshoots. THR claims these are the first, but from insiders we know this isn't the case at all as the film has required incessant reshoots (the latest are to incorporate an entirely new villain, which is a major alteration to a film that wrapped last year). Given how hilariously bad Falcon and the Winter Soldier was (my review), I can only expect more of the same, particularly given how awful the MCU has become.

Blade's never ending struggles continue as the film is getting it's fifth re-write. The primary reason for the constant changes is lead actor Mahershala Ali has tremendous influence on the project and keeps rejecting what he's given. He just wants Blade to kill vampires, but that's too complicated for Marvel. Ali is now 50 (the project was announced five years ago) and you have to wonder if it will ever happen. Since the announced re-write the film has lost it's second director.

I mentioned last time that the Dragonlance creators were out of touch and hadn't enjoyed success in a long time (cf the failure of their new trilogy is part of why Joe Manganiello's show project failed). We see an echo of this reality as Margaret Weis (the loudest of the two authors) is complaining about WotC not race-swapping her original characters in artwork for the upcoming PHB. This is hilarious and may imply that Manganiello's Dragonlance project was suffused with ESG-drivel.

A bit of trivia: back in April we learned that the 1990 Hulk TV special featuring Daredevil failed to be a springboard to a series because NBC bought it out. The company didn't want competition for it's Flash show. As someone who saw both at the time, the latter was definitely better, but it's interesting that there was fear about having more than one comic book show on-air at the same time.

On the heels of scooper Mikey Sutton passing away, Lords of the Long Box's T-Vo (a friend of Sutton's) has also died unexpectedly. I knew neither well, although I interacted with them (briefly replacing T-Vo as one of the hosts for Small Screen's short-lived roundtable show). Neither were particularly old, although Sutton had a history of health problems. Commiserations to his friends and family.

This article was written by Peter Levi

Dragonlance Show Cancelled, MCU Daredevil Changes, Star Wars Rey Film, and Netflix Viewing Numbers

Joe Manganiello's attempt to get Dragonlance on TV screens has been cancelled by WotC:

"Due to Hasbro's sale of the eOne studio [to Lionsgate in August] and the poor performance of a Dragonlance D&D adventure [Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen] and board game in 2022 [Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn], as reasons why the project was not proceeding."

Manganiello has talked about how much people in the industry liked his script and I believe that's true, but Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman also liked the script and both haven't written anything worth reading in decades (their new Dragonlance trilogy bombed just like everything else), so who knows how good his script was (it would absolutely follow the ESG/DEI approaches of Disney et al). Manganiello attempted to buy the IP, but after a WotC lawsuit to get it back from the authors they (or Hasbro) wasn't interested. A key point, and one I raised in 2022, is that WotC has been going backwards in terms of quality of products for years--low sales haven't just come from Dragonlance, as (rather like the MCU) these stretch back to 2019 (Radiant Citadel bombed particularly badly). Attempted tie-ins with Eberron, MAGIC: The Gathering, and Critical Role have failed to land unlike the initial updated versions of classics (Curse of Strahd etc). All this background is to say that Manganiello's project failed due to external factors from Hasbro and WotC themselves--I do think there's value in the IP, but not from its creators nor from nor IP owners at this point. Manganiello is in the wrong era to do this right.

It's worth adding that Hasbro is struggling financially and WotC isn't immune to this expecting a 3-5% decline this year (showing how detached Baldur's Gate 3's success has been). The hobby is fine, but WotC is struggling.

Starting with a rumour from Jeff Sneider (who has a good track record), we now know that Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) and Elden Henson (Foggy) will be brought back for the MCU's Daredevil series. This represents a complete about face from almost a year ago when THR made it clear the duo would not be returning. Before fans get excited, let's be clear about a few things.
1. This does not mean they have an important role in the show

2. Karen's story had already been botched by Netflix in season three (and I'd argue her love story in season two was also badly handled by the impact of the failed Elecktra plotline)

3. Season three in general distorted and broke Netflix Daredevil continuity, making it very hard to utilize it in a meaningful way (cf)

4. Given that the show will feature Kingpin, he's already been degraded by two terrible D+ shows (Hawkeye and Echo); fortunately, no one watched either of them, so there's room to ignore that continuity (D+ has been notorious for that, such as undercutting the entire Nick Fury arc in Secret Invasion)

5. There are signs the MCU is aware it has problems, but no sign it is addressing them meaningfully

I'm happy that Woll and Henson will get paycheques, but I am not expecting a return to form from the original season of Daredevil. Instead, I think these will be glorified cameos intended before making space for new, diverse & inclusive costars--this seems especially likely given that the show is trying to salvage as much as possible from the six episodes shot before the creative overall.

In other good news, it's clear there will be no season two for She-Hulk. It's also unclear where Tatiana Maslany's She-Hulk will appear next in the MCU (the next opportunity is Avengers 5, but whether she's on that team is unknown--speaking of that film, given the re-casting of Warlock for very different reasons, I'd expect Kang to remain the villain of the film and as-is).

The Rey movie, announced last April, was put on indefinite delay (at minimum post-2026). This came on the heels of some tone deaf comments from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy being circulated--these were not new comments, but ones that emerged with new attention coming to the film. Star Wars is in an even bigger mess than the MCU such that it's difficult to know what will happen with it. No live action film is currently filming, although The Mandalorian & Grogu still has a release date. The TV shows have all bombed, although there will be an Andor season two (a very cheap show to shoot so easier to push forward with). I think MCU fans can look at Star Wars and see the future unless something fundamentally changes at Disney (which is unlikely).

Netflix did something it rarely does last year, which is release it's streaming numbers (for the first half of 2023, January to June). As someone who hasn't watched anything on the platform in over a year the results (given buzz) include many surprises. Let's start with the top-five (keeping in mind that, unlike with broadcast TV, first seasons are often the most watched among shows on Netflix):

• The Night Agent (first season) 812k [FBI agent/spy thriller; Gabriel Basso starring]
• Ginny & Georgia (second season) 665k [family comedy/drama; Brianne Howey starring]
• The Glory (first season) 622k [South Korean revenge drama; Song Hye-kyo starring]
• Wednesday (first season) 507k [Addams Family IP/teen drama; Jenna Ortega starring]
• Queen Charlotte (Bridgerton) (first/only season with that lead) 503k [romance/sequel IP; Shonda Rhimes starring]

Four of the five are firsts and I'd never heard of the top three shows (although the first is based on a novel by Matthew Quirk). Night Agent is also unusual in that it's an original Netflix production whose viewership remained strong for a long time (whereas most shows start with a bang and fade off). The fifth entry is our first obvious ESG/DEI selection, although the Rhimes iteration was less successful than the original (625; 20% lower) or it's second season (656; 24% lower); that show trends heavily female (76% for season two, for instance). Keep in mind Wednesday debuted in November, so these are good holdover numbers for the teen drama.

Putting the top-viewed aside, let's look at some other interesting results:

• The Witcher: Blood Origin 65k [spinoff after season two]
• Cleopatra 35k ['documentary' from Jada Smith]
• Witcher (season three) 33k

In fairness to Witcher, it released at the end of June, so towards the end of the data set, however, the initial drop should be huge and instead it's a massive flop. Blood Origin's numbers are horrible, but the stink of the series hadn't achieved complete potency at that time (it's failure, combined with Henry Cavill's announced departure, clearly destroyed whatever viewership was left--no one I know watched either). There's not much left to be said about the horrendous Cleopatra (cf), but we can take heart in how badly it failed.

One story I missed that relates to the Bud Light controversy: yet another big company backpeddled on self-described woke marketing. Victoria Secret announced it was giving up on a 'woke' strategy due to loses, returning to what had worked before (this is exactly what Bud Light has done, but with initial public resistance). This is particularly amusing to me because its market is the exact opposite of the beer company--a predominantly working class male group on the one hand versus a middle/upper class female market on the other. In both cases the DEI/ESG approach did not work, even if I suspect VS customers would at least verbally support it.

This article was written by Peter Levi

The Worst Year in Movie/Television History?

Have we hit rock bottom? I can't remember a year more bereft of quality entertainment. The high points are middling fair that, ten years ago, would be utterly forgettable. Most of the casual viewers I know have turned off new releases and are indulging in offerings of the past (something backed by streaming numbers), and who can blame them? There are so many excremental failures that top-five and top-ten lists of them are littered with honorable mentions. This is the year Rotten Tomatoes got exposed for fudging the numbers, various companies were busted for bot-farming social media, and on and on. Let's take a look and we'll include a few late December, 2022 offerings. Let's also keep in mind the joke from South Park: put a chick in it and make her (gay/diverse) lame--every film and show that fits that criteria is going to be marked in red (I detailed this for film in case it's unclear, but it's obvious for TV). The Disney chart below, via Dan Murrell, is on the conservative side of loss estimates.

Film (organized by box office)

• Little Mermaid (Disney) - 569/297
• Before people pop the champagne comparing this to what's below, the film did not break even and it appears as though Disney is quietly retreating from the race swapping for future endeavors (cf). South Park fit: race-swapped lead.
• Mission Impossible 7 (Paramount) - 567/291
• Illustrating that star power remains useless, Tom Cruise's franchise is on life support as this lost money, so how will you bring people to its Part Two?
• Elemental (Disney) - 496/200
• Another poorly thought out effort that failed to land with fans and lost money
• Ant-Man 3 (Disney) - 476/200
• In terms of harming the MCU overall, this is the worst film of the year, even if The Marvels performed much worse financially--the IP (Ant-Man) is completely dead. SP fit: race-swapped villain; race-swapped Jentorra (an odd one, as a Moroccan became Asian)
• Transformers 7 (Paramount) - 438/200
• No idea why they are still making films for this franchise, or spending this much money on them; SP: leads are all DEI
• Indiana Jones 5 (Disney) - 383/300
• This film is so dumb it's painful; a last ditch effort to make Phoebe Waller-Bridge appeal to a mass audience--she can return to small films and shows better suited to her (limited) female audience; SP: Waller-Bridge inserted
• The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) - 318/100
• The toxic Rachel Zegler managed to turn off the female audience intended for this very late addition to the franchise (the books have completely fallen off the map for its original teenage audience--an audience author Suzanne Collins has clearly lost touch with); SP: Zegler as the lead
• The Flash (WB) - 270/220
• WB decided to push hard with the felon lead (whom, in the aftermath of career destruction, has given up his pronouns); SP: besides Miller himself (they/them at the time), race-swapped Supergirl
• Aquaman 2 (WB) - 258/215 (still in theaters)
• Box office is still ongoing, but this film is suffering purely as a product of how bad prior DC and Marvel efforts have been--the prior film was just as goofy & nonsensical as this one
• Dungeons & Dragons (Paramount) - 208/150
• This occasionally entertaining DEI-infused Guardians ripoff cost far too much money and simply didn't do anything interesting enough to bring people in; Baldur's Gate 3 (the video game) used the same restrictions and made something massively successful--good writing and ambition can push through the nonsense. SP: filled with diversity
• The Marvels (Disney) - 205/275
• Originally Captain Marvel 2, Bris Larson is so toxic she couldn't be trusted to carry the film and no one watched Ms. Marvel or cares about Monica Rambeau, so this bombed harder than any other MCU film in history (carrying the usual nonsensical plot, horrific characterization, etc)--only people with no expectations might have enjoyed it. The most amusing thing is the film was made for women, but they avoided it far more than the male audience (old diverse men showed up); SP: the Carol Danvers-Valkyrie romance was filmed, but cut, so we have Tom Hiddleston's fiancé Zawe Ashton (because nepotism is a thing) in for extra ESG points
• Napoleon (Sony) - 201/200
• Director Ridley Scott happily spit in the faces of people who wanted something more historical accurate and received one of the worst bombs of his career as a result--at his age, I don't think he learned anything from the experience
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount) - 180/70
• It has been a long time since Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg had their finger on the pulse of the audience, so I'm not sure why Paramount thought they could 'figure out' TMNT. SP: April is race swapped
• Wish (Disney) - 148/200
• Yes, the same basic concept that turned Wonder Woman into a rapist was employed again--ESG splattered all over the screen on an animated film that has cost Disney millions. We have a diverse lead (Ariana DeBose).
• Shazam 2 (WB) - 133/125
• Barely anyone saw the first family-friendly drama and the results here prove that whatever numbers it gained on video/TV are meaningless. SP: several race swaps, as well as the standard switch of the original (or prior) iteration being black (as seen in Doctor Who, The Witcher, and so on)
• Blue Beetle (WB) - 129/120
• A character no one had ever heard of, the DEI version was picked and the utterly bizarre Latino family drama/comedy that ensued appealed to no one. SP: it's all DEI.

Every superhero release this year except Guardians 3 makes the list and that movie disappointed as well (continuing the downward trend for James Gunn films). The commonality isn't even the pernicious and restrictive ESG/DEI overlay, it's the atrocious writing. Plots are incoherent, characters are one-dimensional and either bland, annoying, or unintentionally creepy. All of these films lack ambition and don't address anything relevant to people's lives (philosophically or tangibly). Even films intended to be mindless entertainment (like Mission Impossible) could not make the grade. The stupidity that's seeped into the industry is so saturated it's difficult to see how it can change (it certainly won't in 2024, as all the films slated for release were made before this embarrassing crash).

Television/Streaming

• Velma (HBO Max)
• This embarrassing, unfunny, oddly vindictive effort from Mindy Kaling was the She-Hulk of the year and deservedly laughed at just as much as Jessica Gao's moronic effort. It was so bad that, despite appearing early in the year, it's made everyone's list of worst shows.
• Witcher season 3 (Netflix)
• From my point of view all seasons of Witcher have been bad, but it is by degrees and we have finally reached rock bottom. I knew, back before we ever got the show, that showrunner Lauren Hissrich was awful because I'd seen her work before (Jessica Jones season two), but this was the final straw for the few remaining fans. Not only has Henry Cavill departed, but now author Sapkowski is shitting all over it. Very few people covered the season and it vanished from the public eye like a fart in the wind.
• Witcher: Blood Origins (Netflix)
• You couldn't ask for a more overt ESG/DEI show backed with horrendous writing (Declan de Barra as well as Hissrich); it screened so poorly for executives that it was re-edited and shortened prior to release, but that still didn't help
• The Wheel of Time season 2 (Amazon)
• The first season was an incoherent mess and this one was actually worse--so much so virtually no one watched or reviewed it. While being one of the worst shows of the year, somehow it's not the worst fantasy effort.
• Secret Invasion (Disney)
• Yet another D+ show no one watched; Nick Fury is unrecognizable as a grumpy old man (almost identical to Indiana Jones above), as the show's nonsensical and stupid plot goes on to ruin MCU continuity and then largely be ignored in subsequent projects
• Cleopatra (Netflix)
• The second (and certainly last) season of Jada Pinkett Smith's 'documentary' series African Queens; when you piss off the nation you're supposedly representing (Egypt), maybe you should reconsider--then again, Netflix is doing the exact same thing with Hannibal, so nothing was learned
• Rings of Power (Amazon)
• The DEI/ESG-infused nightmare hit audiences flaccidly and despite an enormously expensive advertising campaign failed so miserably they have to pretend (just like Witcher did) that they'll stick closer to the lore (a lie and something impossible to do at this point anyway)
• Willow (Disney)
• This was so poorly received that it's been pulled--the show is gone, removed--better to be shelved forever as a tax write-off than continue to irritate and disappoint audiences
• Loki season 2 (Disney)
• I didn't cover season two as barely anyone watched it--the show continued the handoff to the (obviously better) female version and killed off Loki himself (following in the footsteps of Hawkeye, She-Hulk, etc)
• Mandalorian season 3 (Disney)
• I disliked the prior seasons, but they were successful; the show suffered mightily from the bad lead-in that was Boba Fett, and it's now clear casual fans have given up on Star Wars
• Ahsoka (Disney)
• Dull, boring, pointless; cookie cutout imitation of most of what's above, but exhaustion has set-in for the IP
• Gotham Knights (WB)
• Another lazy, dumb, CW-style show that decided a Gotham show needed to start with a dead Batman
• National Treasure: Edge of History (Disney/ABC)
• Yes, this show existed. Lauded for great numbers, it was mysteriously cancelled--very Lovecraft Country/Watchmen of them
• Robyn Hood (Global TV)
• You're forgiven if you've never heard of this, but it's a hilariously awful DEI/ESG effort out of Canada that's exactly what you'd expect it to be--this one might be bad enough to enjoy as unintentionally funny

This list could be a mile long, but I've highlighted the ones I'm most aware of (all of which had IP or historical precedents to assist in their marketing). Unlike with film, all of these choices fulfilled their DEI/ESG ambitions (and who doesn't like the ruling elite, am I right? Bill Gates wants what's best for me, I'm sure of it). Above incoherence and terrible writing, the worst part of most of these shows is that they are boring. A Neil Breen film has the first two elements, but you can at least be entertained by the magnificent stupidity of Double Down. There is none of that here. The amount of money spent on this is obscene and all the shows failed to accomplish both their financial and ideological goals.

While we know ESG is going away, the companies who propped it up will continue to funding those goals, so what's going to happen? The SAG strike will cut back some DEI hiring in terms of showrunners/writers, but the goalposts won't change. What needs to happen is big companies, like Disney, need financial disaster--to be forced to actually appeal to the audience rather than do the bidding of trillion dollar companies. Will we get that in the future? One can hope, but it's unlikely to happen next year.

This article was written by Peter Levi

Box Office Struggles Continue; Zegler Damage Control; Captain America 4 in Trouble; James Gunn Hypocrisy; Lack of Leslye Headland Backlash; and the ESG/DEI Success Story

Box Office Disaster Continues

The worst American Thanksgiving box office in history saw the cratering of the latest Disney/MCU films. When this kind of failure is covered by the mainstream you know it's catastrophic. This reality comes as a shock to the few people still riding the MCU train (I've run into disbelief and bafflement over The Marvels failure, for instance). Let's briefly look at their performance:

• The Marvels - 202 (domestic weekend drops: -78%, -37%, -60%, -46%)
• Wish - 106 (domestic weekend drop: -61%, -31%)

Both films suffered from negative word of mouth and both are complete financial failures--The Marvels might not limp past the Dungeons & Dragons bomb (208) and has no hope of reaching Ezra Miller's The Flash (270; losing out to an alleged kidnapper and abuser has to sting). Even the shills are talking about the failure and expressing that the lead characters in The Marvels (Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau) may be cut going forward--hints of the former were occurring weeks before release from Brie Larson in particular. The incredibly expensive Wish is yet another flop on Disney's animated side (cf), who haven't had a hit since Toy Story 4 (2019) and Frozen 2 (2019). This echoes the MCU's only success after Phase Three, which was also a sequel (Spider-Man 3 in 2021). The belief is the two films are going to collectively cost Disney 500 million dollars, which is incredible.

Related in terms of box office, the Hunger Games prequel has had very mild weekly drops (-35%, -51%, -34%), but started so poorly it could still lose money for Lions Gate (currently at 260 worldwide). Irrespective of where it ends up, it hasn't met projections (the last franchise film, in 2015, made 653, which is 849 in today's dollars).

Speaking of the Rachel Zegler vehicle, I speculated that she had been told to stop making inflammatory comments recently and this theory is backed by recent comments where she now claims to love classic Disney IP, despite saying the opposite just months earlier. The new comments are clearly public relations with her true feelings laid out in the multiple interviews previously. The negative reaction to her has become so large that it threatens the box office of her future projects and Disney is attempting whatever damage control it can before the next release (just as the WB silenced and hid Ezra Miller in the lead-up to The Flash in the hopes of saving it).

As someone who suffered through Falcon and the Winter Soldier (my review) it comes as no surprise that Captain America 4 has tested even lower than The Marvels. Apparently the plot was meant to be a January 6th parallel (pre-lawsuits/footage release, clearly). This included Falcon repeating his nonsensical 'do better' speech from D+, but I suspect thw plot has little to do with the poor response. The film is now going through emergency reshoots, but as these haven't been helping the modern day MCU, they are most likely a waste of time and money.

The unintended disaster that has been James Gunn's public statements as DCEU clown-in-chief continue (cf). Recently he declared cameo porn as one of the worst elements in recent super hero films. This comment comes after his lavish praise for The Flash, which is completely dependent on cameo porn. In his short tenure Gunn has said so many contradictory things it feels like we have to ignore what he says and focus on what he does instead.

The unwanted Star Wars D+ show is filmed and will be inflicted on audiences in 2024. I bring it up not because of the lack of quality (which won't be any worse than the other SW series), but because its creator, Leslye Headland, has somehow avoided any fallout whatsoever from being Harvey Weinstein's personal assistant. In that position she was well aware (despite her denials) of what he was up to (an open secret in Hollywood, as we now know) and pointedly did not go into that in her 'tell-all' play in 2012. How she's completely skated from that scandal is unclear, although she ticks three boxes for an ESG score (female, Jew, and a lesbian) so perhaps that is enough. Regardless, the show had a difficult production and some insiders (cf) claimed it was never coming out. How will it do? Given that Ahsoka just crashed and burned without the same drawbacks, I'd have to think horribly.

Speaking of ESG/DEI, while the former (as a label) seems is going away, the people behind it haven't changed so the efforts continue. How can you push an agenda if the public rejects it? BlackRock has talked repeatedly about forcing behaviour through its funding, but thus far that investment has only made limited inroads among the wealthy elite (screaming at the lower classes has never been the way to change minds--apparently Larry Fink never read 1984 or, if he did, didn't understand it). The route they should have followed is what Larian Games has successfully done with Baldur's Gate 3. That game is suffused with ESG nonsense (echoing the failed Dungeons & Dragons movie), however, it handled it as well as can be. How did they do it? The politics are largely background and it mostly avoids demeaning and screaming at its opponents. Larian also made a choice that's very out of step with modern games (and TV/film) by having a largely non-ESG cast, ergo its DEI placements are mostly secondary characters. One of the primary signs of how well BG3's approach has worked is that the tiny minority who hated the game come from both sides of the political spectrum. There are plenty of things within the game that are absurd, but they can be ignored because everything else is excellent. I don't see any evidence that larger companies are smart enough to follow this approach--we're on course for more screaming and virtue signaling.

This is just an observation. One of the stranger things I run into when discussing the relative success of something is the unwillingness of those who like (or dislike) them to accept financial reality. This has nothing to do with the quality of a product (that's a separate discussion), but there's stubborn resistance in accepting failure (something encouraged by shills, although they can't completely ignore it, cf). These tend to be the kind of people who think putting a BLM sticker on their car tangibly improves race relations, or that a Ukrainian flag on their Twitter bio helps the war effort; etc (look at me, look how good my intentions are). Whether I like something or not, how the public receives it (short-term and long-term) is interesting: it says something about the tastes of the general audience and the culture at large. For example, even though I think the Star Wars prequels are terrible films, it remains true that many younger people who grew up with them enjoyed them then and still do. That's interesting and worth exploring. I don't see any value (except rhetorically) in simply rejecting that fact (and I can at least credit how most prequel fans admit they are flawed).

This article was written by Peter Levi

MCU Fallout Continues; He-Man/She-Ra Sold; Hunger Games Flops; Netflix's Hannibal

After the release of Shang-Chi (the second Phase Four bomb after Black Widow), featuring the irritating Simu Liu, a sequel was expected via the talentless Cretton (cf) returning to write and direct (those with good memories will recall Cretton claimed Shang-Chi would be like The Matrix--not so much!). Since then there has been radio silence (just a vague promise it would appear after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, now set to appear in 2026). Given the lack of appetite for the character, I never believed we'd get a sequel (just Shang-Chi shoehorned into a hero group, presumably The Avengers), and now we've learned that Cretton has been booted from the aforementioned Avengers film (probably due to the new SAG agreement), but in theory is still in charge of the hypothetical Shang-Chi sequel and Wonderman show that's likely never going to appear (passim; it's rumoured the actors from that show have been told to move on). Cretton, just like Nia DaCosta (The Marvels), Chloe Zhao (The Eternals), etc, were hired because of what he is, not who he is (ticking a representation box for ESG). With the strike agreement in place it's impossible to continue the MCU's approach of ghost directors handling action/FX-heavy scenes while leaving the talking to ESG picks. Marvel is now forced to have actual showrunners and directors and none of the aforementioned (nor D+ folks) have shown any ability to do that successfully with comicbook material.

In the same theme as Shang-Chi above, there was talk of an Eternals sequel when released, with comments from Feige that the characters would be appearing subsequently. However, not only has a sequel not been announced, none of the characters have reappeared and the expected attachment of Kamala Khan to the franchise was removed entirely. It's not that Eternals bombed much harder than Shang-Chi (402 vs 432), but the film was seen as so horrendous by the industry (even shills) that they gave up on it immediately (the leak prior to its release, something virtually unprecedented for the MCU, seems like a sign of how little faith they had in it).

Grace Randolph, the more successful female version of John Campea, is stating the obvious: the MCU (a brand built to sell toys to boys, but happened to appeal to girls as well) is struggling to switch that appeal to a larger female/diverse audience. None of the efforts have worked (I know people it does work for, but that number has shrank to just a few). The most amusing thing about The Marvels flop is that women did not show up (35% of the audience); it's less surprising that Caucasians skipped it (just 36%; Marvel constantly attacking that audience is paying dividends). The only thing the MCU's approach has achieved is to mildly appeal to older diverse men, but in numbers too small to support the franchise. This reality isn't something Disney or Marvel can accept (or its few remaining fans, in my experience) so we aren't going to see a change in approach until the brand completely implodes. Until then, most MCU fans have (just like graphic novel fans) migrated to Anime/Manga where there's no ESG in sight.

Speaking of the future, Andre has a theory that Loki season two (which no one is watching; not in the top-10 streaming shows and only 5th among originals) has opened the door to replacing the very troubled Jonathan Majors (Kang; his legal situation isn't as bad as Tenoch Huerta (Namor)--as the fired Victoria Alonso would remind us, you have to role the 'R' with Huerta, "Rrrrrrrape"). Tom Hiddleston has said he's done with Marvel (I wouldn't put much stock in that comment, but it is amusing to see someone as 'progressive' as Hiddleston get fed-up with the direction of his character--just like his buddy Thor, Chris Hemsworth). Loki would be an excellent Memberberry to include in the next Avengers film (repeating his appearance as their original villain). Marvel could get away with that since most of its audience has no idea what's been happening in Phase Four and Five. That would be the perfect recipe for a reboot, but it's difficult to imagine that happening or, if it did, it improving while an unfettered Kevin Feige is in charge (bringing back Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is a desperate act and you have to wonder if they will John Krasinski-him in the process).

Netflix's She-Ra (2018-20) and He-Man (2021-22) have been sold off to Amazon. If it's difficult to parse this reality with the media narrative about how successful the shows were, that's tells you something about corporate media. The IP is meant to sell toys and when it doesn't and struggles with ratings that's not a success. Regardless, it's extremely unlikely Amazon will do anything useful with the IP (more Rings of Power volcanoes to the face), but it's a suitably botched ending for Netflix's hilarious fumbling of the franchise.

The pampered lunatic known as Rachal Zegler (the upcoming Snow White, passim) has seen her Hunger Games film open lower than megabomb The Marvels (44 vs 46). There's a context in that The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes cost less (80 million), so there's a chance it could avoid losing money. Whether treading water is enough for more films to be made is hard to say (probably), but you have to think Zegler won't be a part of that future. What's funny is this is exactly the fanbase that The Marvels was pursuing, but neither has worked (albeit I assume the female demographic of the audience is much higher).

You would have thought after the Cleopatra disaster a lesson might have been learned by Netflix about race swapping popular historical figures, but clearly that's not the case as Denzel Washington has been tapped to play Hannibal of Carthage (I'm sure someone's mother also dreamed about him being black). For those who don't know, the descendants of the Phoenicians are the Lebanese, an underrepresented minority group (just like Egyptians) who are not sub-Saharan Africans (and thus don't seem to 'count' as meaningful in America--along with North Africans, Turks, and so on). I don't know what audience they think they are targeting--Bridgerton? Washington is a fantastic actor, but he's far too old for the part (68; Hannibal was 29 at the start of the Second Punic War), not to mention it's a cultural insult to both the historical person and the culture he was part of (it's both cultural imperialism and appropriation, but we'll have to see if the Neo-Liberal left (ala The Mary Sue) oppose it here like they did with Cleopatra). What this choice tells me is Netflix is still receiving ESG money (or some equivalent), as none of this vapid virtue signaling actually appeals to the general audience. My guess is execs wanted the hero (Hannibal) to be played by a minority in order to fight the evil white (Roman) enemies.

This article was written by Peter Levi