Summary
- Fake quotes attributed to Isabela Merced are circulating online
- The quotes blame the failure of female-led superhero films on male audiences
- The source of the quotes is unclear and may have been made up by a Facebook page for attention
The trolls are going into overdrive, making all the fans look bad, as a quote attributed to Isabela Merced is apparently big-time fake news.
The 22-year-old actress recently starred in Sony Marvel’s Madame Web that bombed big time at the box office, and she is starring in James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy that gets released in 2025 where she plays the DCU’s Hawkgirl.
Update: Isabela Merced took to Twitter to also shoot down the fake quotes:
“I’m just existing and people are spreading fake quotes?! And believing them?! With no real source?! We need lessons on media literacy. This is craaaazyyyy,” she tweeted.
Where is the source?
On Monday, The Comic Menu Facebook Page posted an image of Isabela Merced from the Madame Web premiere and posted the following that quotes the actress as blaming the male audience for the failure of female-led superhero films including Madame Web, The Marvels, and Birds of Prey.
The Comic Menu Facebook Page also posted that Isabela Merced said James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy features Lois Lane as the protagonist.
There’s only one problem. The quotes and the post are apparently made up:
BLAME THE FANS: Isabela Merced says #MadameWeb failed for one simple reason “for the same reason The Marvels or Birds of Prey have failed, because the male audience still hides a deep contempt for everything that is starring strong, independent women”
The actress of Peruvian origin praises James Gunn and says she just accepted to be Hawkgirl in #SupermanLegacy when she read the script where “Lois Lane is really the protagonist, Superman is the symbol but she is the ideal brought to action while being a normal woman and real”.
Update: The original source appears to be the Box Office México Facebook Page who posted the above in Spanish on Sunday using the exact same image. Checking The Comic Menu Facebook Page, it seems they regularly reference the Box Office México Facebook Page as a source (my guess is they are both run by the same person/people to make it look legit). However, the Box Office México Facebook Page does not list a source I could find for the Isabela Merced quotes.
“Lois Lane is really the protagonist”
I first caught wind of the post via Twitter when a follower of mine tweeted about it. So what I did was, I searched Google for what Isabela Merced allegedly said (which doesn’t even sound like proper English). You can search for specific terms in Google by using quotes; so if you enter into Google “Lois Lane is really the protagonist” it will return results with exactly that phrase.
However, all that came up was the post from the The Comic Menu Facebook Page as well as a YouTube video where a YouTuber apparently got duped thinking it was real just like a lot of fans out there.
Update: I then searched the Spanish translation, which is how I found the Box Office México Facebook Page, which is listed as the source on The Comic Menu Facebook Page post (not sure if it was there originally and/or if the post was edited later to add it).
The Comic Menu Facebook Page post has since gone viral with 27k likes and 18k comments with 2.2k shares, and a follower of mine on Twitter asked me to set the record straight.
Isabela Merced never said any of what is claimed
So according to my own research, Isabela Merced never said any of what is claimed above, as I can’t find a source.
The Comic Menu Facebook Page or the Box Office México Facebook Page can simply provide a source if what they say is true; otherwise, it’s complete bullshit and should be reported and taken down.
What I think happened is that the page or pages may have made it up to attract attention and borrowed from similar statements made recently by a Disney exec and Rachel Brosnahan who plays Lois Lane in Superman: Legacy.
A Disney exec recently blamed fans for the failure of The Marvels and Star Wars.
Regarding Rachel Brosnhan, she recently said of her Lois, “She saves Superman. She’s the brains; she’s actually the fearless one.” She also described Lois as, “Feisty, dare I say, marvelous, and fiercely intelligent.”
So it appears following the failure of Madame Web, The Comic Menu Facebook Page and/or the Box Office México Facebook Page posted false information about Isabela Merced.
Again, if someone has a source, shoot me an e-mail or hit me up on Twitter and I’ll be sure to reference it.
This isn’t the first time that I had to call out fake news: The far right-wingers were making false claims about the recent TMNT animated movie as well as the reason Disney+ lost subscribers a while back. They owe it to the fans and themselves not to stoop to the levels of the woke mob.
