It’s another win for the good guys.
Variety, of all places, reports that Disney executives are now actively pressuring creatives for new movies to lure back Gen Z men — ages 13 to 28 — after Marvel and Lucasfilm have shed audiences at an alarming rate.
The headline should actually be all men, not just “Gen Z.”
Despite once being billion-dollar engines, Star Wars hasn’t released a film in seven years, and Marvel’s latest, Fantastic Four: First Steps, is bombing, which follows a string of MCU bombs from Kevin Feige, including Thunderbolts and Captain America: Brave New World.
Disney focusing on original IPs instead of Marvel and Star Wars?
It’s all been unfolding exactly as I first said it would, as I created Cosmic Book News back in 2007/8 to combat the political correctness that destroyed and erased my favorite character, Wendell Vaughn Quasar.
According to the report, Disney CEO Bob Iger claims the focus now is on “original IP” rather than endless Marvel and Star Wars sequels and reboots. But the irony isn’t lost on fans — especially when Disney itself made Marvel and Star Wars into cultural zombies through forced messaging and by alienating and blaming the very audience that made them global phenomena.
From “The Force Is Female” to Losing Gen Z Men
As Nerdrotic points out in his video, the signs were there as far back as The Last Jedi and Captain Marvel (even further back if you read the comics). Disney took male-driven brands loved by everyone and reframed them into lifestyle brands with feminist messaging and lecturing, rather than focusing on heroes and quality storytelling. The result? Audiences walked away.
- Marvel since Endgame: 27 projects, with only a handful considered watchable.
- Star Wars under Kathleen Kennedy: multiple shows, divisive reception, and no real momentum on the big screen.
- Indiana Jones? The “handoff” to Phoebe Waller-Bridge fizzled, leaving the franchise dead on arrival.
- Daredevil: Born Again: The first MCU show not to chart on the Nielsen ratings.
- Let’s add in Willow which Disney removed entirely from Disney+.
And now, according to Variety, Disney is shocked to find out it needs men back — not just Gen Z, but all the men it openly mocked as “toxic” or “incels.”
Zombie Franchises and the Push for “Original”
Disney is still releasing a conveyor belt of sequels (Avatar 3, Zootopia 2, Toy Story 5, Frozen 3, Avengers 5 & 6), while claiming it wants originality. Instead of bold new storytelling, Disney keeps recycling old IP while ignoring the core issue: they drove away their core fans.
The following tweets pointed out by Nerdrotic sum things up:
“If you’re struggling to get boys to watch your stuff when you own Marvel, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, you don’t belong in the audience business. What an astounding failure Disney’s woke era has been.” – @senator_tim
“Disney turning Star Wars (and Marvel) from a boy brand into a girl brand will prove to be the costliest decision in movie history. #MakeMarvelMaleAgain,” – @thatchrisgore
What Happens Next?
Disney insiders admit they want more “guy-leaning” fare like Pirates of the Caribbean or adventure films (Disney originally announced a new Margot Robbie reboot but now it looks like they are righting the ship and bringing back Johnny Depp), but the question remains: has that ship sailed?
The fans who grew up with real heroes — Luke Skywalker, Iron Man, Captain America — have checked out. And unless Disney changes its creative leadership (looking at Feige and Kathleen Kennedy, specifically), Marvel and Star Wars may never recover, and it’s something Disney may already be aware of – that those brands are damaged beyond repair – hence the move to more “originals.”
