Disney is not “too woke,” according to CEO Bob Chapek. The Hollywood giant has come under fire recently from a number of recent changes around inclusivity and diversity in the studio’s output, including the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in its live-action Little Mermaid remake, the inclusion of a same-sex kiss in Lightyear and multiple additions to the Star Wars and Marvel franchises. All of this has led to complaints that the company is going woke for woke sake, but this is something that Chapek says is something that is “more complex” than many believe. He told the Wall Street Journal:
"I think the more complex something is, the more you really have to drill down into the basics and we want our content to reflect the rich, diverse world that we live in. And, again, I guess that's another way of saying, 'Catering to your audience.' But the world is a rich, diverse place and we want our content to reflect that. And we're so blessed to have the greatest content creators and they see it similarly.
"I always say, when someone walks down Main Street and look at the castle, you're not thinking 'I'm on one side of the political spectrum or the other,' You have a shared belief in all the wonderful aspects of what Disney is. I want to use Disney to bring people together, and I think we'll do that by diverse stories and diverse characters."
How Has Disney Incorporated Diversity Into Its Movies?
For many years, the Walt Disney Company was under fire for its lack of diversity. This included the casting of mostly white males as major heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and numerous white actors in prominent voice roles for classic Disney movies such as The Lion King, Toy Story and Frozen. However, in recent years there has been a massive shift in the number of roles being given to women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. However, this has also brought a number of complaints about Disney’s “wokeness” from social media users who are not on board with some recent castings.
Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast remake cast Josh Gad as the studio’s first gay character when he took on the role of Le Fou, the revelation of which led to the movie being banned in some countries. Complaints have also been raised against a gay kiss in the Toy Story spin-off movie Lightyear, same-sex couples being included in a number of Marvel movies, the casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White, Halle Bailey as The Little Mermaid, and many more.
While the subject of diversity is one that is not going to be easily resolved, Disney is just one of the studios that have to constantly tread a fine line between being true to the source material and being diverse when adapting well-known works into new TV shows and movies. How they continue to do that in the future is an issue that is clearly being constantly considered by Chapek and the rest of his team.