Disney has been operating under a pretty perverted business model for a while now when it comes to its movies and streaming programs. As best we can tell, the model goes like this:
Take a property that fans love, inject it with as much wokeness, gender ideology, and critical theory as possible, and then call all of the fans racists and bigots when they inevitably criticize how Disney has destroyed yet another IP that they own. The box office almost doesn't even matter to them anymore because institutional investors like Blackrock and Vanguard love it, so they pump billions into the company.
There's really no other way to explain the Hindenburg that was Rachel Zegler's Snow White. And you can't call that a one-off mistake because Disney has double, triple, and quadrupled down on deliberately pissing off its fans. Before Captain America: Brave New World, star Anthony Mackie said that he doesn't believe the character should represent ... America. And who can forget the Star Wars disaster The Acolyte, and the creators who giggled that it was going to be 'the gayest Star Wars yet.'
Now, after failed attempts by other studios to deliver box office success with The Fantastic Four, Disney is getting a whack at bringing Marvel's 'First Family' to the big screen.
Surely, we say to ourselves, the stars of this movie will have learned a lesson and are promising to deliver a faithful adaptation of the beloved comic book superheroes, right?
Surely, we would be wrong to think that.
'The Fantastic Four: First Steps: stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and director Matt Shakman share details about the upcoming Marvel superhero film — and why it's different from what you've seen before. https://t.co/I7vHnEY7Ud
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) April 10, 2025
Recommended
In this interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director and the four main stars of the upcoming movie Fantastic Four: First Steps (hitting theaters this summer) talked about what they thought their characters should be ... and ain't none of it was good.
Brad Slager, from our sister site RedState, took Vanessa Kirby and her character of Sue Storm to task earlier this week. Kirby seems to be trying to emulate Zegler as best she can.
Kirby will be taking on Sue Storm, and in speaking to EW about her role, she indicates that gender politics and contemporary sensibilities will be a featured component of her character.
(Cue ominous and foreboding music in the score.)
'If you played an exact '60s Sue today, everyone would think she was a bit of a doormat. So figuring out how to capture the essence of what she represented to each generation, where the gender politics were different, and embody that today, was one of the greatest joys of this. 'I've always been really interested in the mess of femininity, and how can you be both? How can you be all the things?'
Yes, how dare we expect The Invisible Girl to reflect '60s sensibilities in a movie THAT IS SET IN THE '60s?
Why Gender Politics?, Why do they always want to change the original characters? lmao.
— Richard Text (@richard_text_) April 12, 2025
Don't you know? We must always 'update for modern audiences.' Except no audiences, modern or otherwise, want to see this.
So they’re doing a Rachel Zegler Snow White…a. Beloved and established property that they feel in their infinite wisdom is dated, so they’re going to inject gender politics and Leftist ideology.
— Phloog the Gaming Gatekeeper (@JPhloog) April 11, 2025
SO glad I have lots of old movies on Blu-ray.
What's even funnier about Kirby's comments is that she makes it quite clear that she knows nothing about Sue Storm. No one ever considered her a 'doormat.' That is simply what fourth-wave feminists call her because she works with men (and sometimes need their help, as they sometimes need hers).
One of Storm's most famous moments in Marvel comics, in fact, was during the 'Civil War' story arc, where she publicly defied her husband and the rest of her team over the Mutant Registration Act. We're guessing that Kirby is not familiar with any of that or even with the character she is playing.
But it doesn't stop there.
Joseph Quinn is playing Storm's younger brother, Johnny, in the movie, and he also wants to completely change The Human Torch from the person he is into, apparently, a 'White Dude for Harris.'
#TheFantasticFour star Joseph Quinn on how his Human Torch will differ from Chris Evans' version:
— Screen Rant (@screenrant) April 11, 2025
"He was branded as this womanizing, devil-may-care guy, but is that sexy these days? I don't think so. This version of Johnny is less callous with other people's feelings."
Source:… pic.twitter.com/0efRkfxNOH
But Johnny Storm IS a devil-may-care guy. He is also a ladies man, reckless, quick-tempered, and impulsive. These were earned characteristics in the comics. It was how he dealt with losing his mother as a child and having an alcoholic father.
But Quinn wants to rename Johnny Storm's character into Mr. Sensitive Ponytail Man.
So not Johnny Storm
— 🕯️🇺🇸 Lauren Masters (@SarahKWilliam2) April 11, 2025
Not even a little bit.
Sure, dude.
— And Don't Call Me Shirley. (@Meme_Behavior) April 11, 2025
Real women find the beta male feminist types so 'sexy.'
Good luck with that.
Just like Kirby, Quinn does not seem to understand the character he is playing at all.
It’s a character defect, every person has character defects.
— Slippin’ Jimmy (@sukanikadikasum) April 11, 2025
Fans didn't love The Human Torch because he was perfect (or whatever leftists determine the 'perfect' man to be, like Doug Emhoff). They loved him because he had all of these flaws and still found a way to be a hero. Very much like Tony Stark's Iron Man.
“This version of Johnny is less callous with other people's feelings."
— Thor Odinson (@Thor_Odinson) April 11, 2025
Meanwhile, Johnny Storm… pic.twitter.com/F8jh2uon8p
LOL.
As much as the 2005 and 2007 Fantastic Four movies were failures overall, at least Chris Evans played the Johnny Storm character faithfully.
— James Whomever (@JamesWhomever) April 12, 2025
Of all of the actors in the Entertainment Weekly interview, only Ebon Moss-Bachrach (who plays Ben Grimm/The Thing) seemed to understand the nature of the character he is portraying.
Of course, as Slager pointed out in his RedState article, the main characters aren't the only problem. The movie has also cast a woman to play the Silver Surfer. This is not entirely inaccurate, as there have been several incarnations of Galactus's herald in the comics, including a woman, but the definitive character, and the one most fans know and love best, is Norrin Radd.
Between this and the other post, I don't think I've gone from being excited about a movie to having no desire to watch it so fast. https://t.co/LGJfphSLFL
— Ordnance Jay Packard Esq. (@OrdnancePackard) April 12, 2025
Yesterday, I would not have paid to see this film.
— Vincent Charles: Roi De Tout, (Ret.) (@YesThatVCharles) April 12, 2025
Today?
You could not pay me to see this film. https://t.co/b45v1znIjq
This may flop even harder than Snow White https://t.co/LJZAPuag0X
— Amy 🐘🦙🚫🧟♂️🧟♂️🧟♂️ (@WaltzingMtilda) April 12, 2025
It's looking very much like another box office disaster in the works for the MCU.
And Disney seems to be following their business model to a tee.
Now, we just have to sit back and wait for Phase II of that business model: Everyone at Disney and all of the stars of the movie calling us bigots.
At least that part will be fun. This Fantastic Four movie? Not so much.
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