General Star Wars Discussion

[Obi-J Kenobi]

Interesting huh?


https://variety.com/2025/film/news/disney-marvel-lucasfilm-gen-z-1236494681/

Alright, I just read this story. I'm not sure I entirely understand the story. But, here's what I think I understand from this story.

Bob Iger says our Disney brand with men lags compared to women. Women love the Disney brand. Men are just okay with it.

We need to try to bring more men into the Disney brand so that men love the Disney brand as much as women love the Disney brand.

Bob Iger, thereafter, says let's do something we just haven't been doing at TWDC in the past. We will buy existing brands that men traditionally love and we will draw men to our Disney brand buy purchasing some of men's favorite brands. That means we will buy outright or some percentage or stake in, for instance, Star Wars, Pixar, Epic, and Marvel.

Now, we'll take brands men traditionally love and make them more friendly to women so we can gain the love and enthusiasms of women when enjoying these traditionally men's brands. That way women will love the men's brands as they are incorporated into Disney brands throughout merchandise, parks, cruises, films, etc. etc.

After all the purchases of brands that men love and all the decisions to make these brands women friendly, we looked at the demos and data and women are not showing up.

But, by making the changes to entice more women to these traditional men's brands, we have harmed and damaged the brands men loved and which we bought to bring men to the Disney brand.

Sitting here today our decisions have been so bad that it appears that we cannot save the old brands we bought to lure men to the Disney brand (e.g. Star Wars or Marvel) and bring those same men back to the brands they used to love. On top of that, some of those men now are blaming Disney leadership and that's hurting the Disney brand with men, which is exactly the opposite of what we wanted.

Therefore, we need to invest into new IP to bring men to the Disney brand because the old brands are finished.

Finally, no one at TWDC in charge of the studios or leadership of any type is apparently at fault or should be blamed for the decisions that were made with Star Wars or Marvel irrevocably changing and irreparably harming (?) the brands and causing men to abandon the brands they used to love. At least, no one in this article is going to be blamed. Instead, the men that have abandoned the brands because of the decisions our leadership has made is at fault and let's insult them for leaving a brand that Disney leadership has cooked.

Meanwhile, the only quote from TWDC leadership is from a quarterly meeting where Bob Iger states that Disney needs "to put out great movies." And his solution is to hire another person to find a way to make inroads with the male audience. Well, that's why they pay him the big bucks I guess.

 

[BrianL]

Alright, I just read this story. I'm not sure I entirely understand the story. But, here's what I think I understand from this story.

Bob Iger says our Disney brand with men lags compared to women. Women love the Disney brand. Men are just okay with it.

We need to try to bring more men into the Disney brand so that men love the Disney brand as much as women love the Disney brand.

Bob Iger, thereafter, says let's do something we just haven't been doing at TWDC in the past. We will buy existing brands that men traditionally love and we will draw men to our Disney brand buy purchasing some of men's favorite brands. That means we will buy outright or some percentage or stake in, for instance, Star Wars, Pixar, Epic, and Marvel.

Now, we'll take brands men traditionally love and make them more friendly to women so we can gain the love and enthusiasms of women when enjoying these traditionally men's brands. That way women will love the men's brands as they are incorporated into Disney brands throughout merchandise, parks, cruises, films, etc. etc.

After all the purchases of brands that men love and all the decisions to make these brands women friendly, we looked at the demos and data and women are not showing up.

But, by making the changes to entice more women to these traditional men's brands, we have harmed and damaged the brands men loved and which we bought to bring men to the Disney brand.

Sitting here today our decisions have been so bad that it appears that we cannot save the old brands we bought to lure men to the Disney brand (e.g. Star Wars or Marvel) and bring those same men back to the brands they used to love. On top of that, some of those men now are blaming Disney leadership and that's hurting the Disney brand with men, which is exactly the opposite of what we wanted.

Therefore, we need to invest into new IP to bring men to the Disney brand because the old brands are finished.

Finally, no one at TWDC in charge of the studios or leadership of any type is apparently at fault or should be blamed for the decisions that were made with Star Wars or Marvel irrevocably changing and irreparably harming (?) the brands and causing men to abandon the brands they used to love. At least, no one in this article is going to be blamed. Instead, the men that have abandoned the brands because of the decisions our leadership has made is at fault and let's insult them for leaving a brand that Disney leadership has cooked.

Meanwhile, the only quote from TWDC leadership is from a quarterly meeting where Bob Iger states that Disney needs "to put out great movies." And his solution is to hire another person to find a way to make inroads with the male audience. Well, that's why they pay him the big bucks I guess.

The article doesn't really talk about any of that though. It is about younger groups, particularly young boys not conencting with the current franchises. The only people who got all bent out of shape about the female leads in Star Wars etc. are older men who can't deal with the fact that the men weren't the leads. It's a persecuation complex based on nothing.

Gen Z on the other hand just doesn't care. Have you seen the stuff that they like? They don't care what gender the lead is - some of their leads are just heads stikcing out of toilets! Unfortunately, I think Disney would have to produce nonsense to appeal to them, which I wouldn't want to see. Then again, I'm an old man who has a lawn to tell people to get off of.

At the end of the day, a lot of this is just changes in the market, changes in the business, and changes in society. It has always happened and it always will.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

The article doesn't really talk about any of that though. It is about younger groups, particularly young boys not conencting with the current franchises. The only people who got all bent out of shape about the female leads in Star Wars etc. are older men who can't deal with the fact that the men weren't the leads. It's a persecuation complex based on nothing.

Gen Z on the other hand just doesn't care. Have you seen the stuff that they like? They don't care what gender the lead is - some of their leads are just heads stikcing out of toilets! Unfortunately, I think Disney would have to produce nonsense to appeal to them, which I wouldn't want to see. Then again, I'm an old man who has a lawn to tell people to get off of.

At the end of the day, a lot of this is just changes in the market, changes in the business, and changes in society. It has always happened and it always will.

At the end of the day though Disney purposefully purchased Star Wars and Marvel because they wanted a Boys brand. Unfortunately for Disney the way they have managed those brands in recent years has yielded men and boys of all ages abandoning those brands. This is absolutely an omission that they (Disney) have realized mistakes have been made. This was discussed on here years ago, and this is just proof there was validity to that discussion. However, I know few here will admit that.

 

[BrianL]

At the end of the day though Disney purposefully purchased Star Wars and Marvel because they wanted a Boys brand. Unfortunately for Disney the way they have managed those brands in recent years has yielded men and boys of all ages abandoning those brands. This is absolutely an omission that they (Disney) have realized mistakes have been made. This was discussed on here years ago, and this is just proof there was validity to that discussion. However, I know few here will admit that.

Oh, whatever. Boys can and do like plenty of things with female leads. Disney hasn't done anything to turn men off, excepting those who simply can't handle having female leads at all.

The real issue is that Disney (and other corproations) have relied solely on nostalgia-bait, trying to court older fans instead of actually evolving to include younger audiences. That's what killed the comic book industry. When you target everything at those 18 to 35 - those who are younger don't have any way to engage. Of course, often, targeting the younger demo can turn off the older, but when your primary product is cartoons (whether the be live-action or not), then that's the better bet. There are always kids coming in, wheras older fans are always disappearing.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Oh, whatever. Boys can and do like plenty of things with female leads. Disney hasn't done anything to turn men off, excepting those who simply can't handle having female leads at all.

The real issue is that Disney (and other corproations) have relied solely on nostalgia-bait, trying to court older fans instead of actually evolving to include younger audiences. That's what killed the comic book industry. When you target everything at those 18 to 35 - those who are younger don't have any way to engage. Of course, often, targeting the younger demo can turn off the older, but when your primary product is cartoons (whether the be live-action or not), then that's the better bet. There are always kids coming in, wheras older fans are always disappearing.

Take up your grievances with Variety and not me. They are the ones that have said SW and Marvel are failing to capture the male audience.

 

[BrianL]

Take up your grievances with Variety and not me. They are the ones that have said SW and Marvel are failing to capture the male audience.

Yeah, but they are specifically talking about Gen Z - it's more of a generational thing than a gender thing. In my experience the only people who get all fussed about gender are old guys (like me - except not me because I never grew up!). I guarantee you that those Gen Z boys aren't whining about Rey. They don't like Star Wars because old people do. They actually might if they would actually produce some Star Wars movies again, and ones that don't try to cater to the OT fans exclusicely.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

The article doesn't really talk about any of that though. It is about younger groups, particularly young boys not conencting with the current franchises. The only people who got all bent out of shape about the female leads in Star Wars etc. are older men who can't deal with the fact that the men weren't the leads. It's a persecuation complex based on nothing.

Gen Z on the other hand just doesn't care. Have you seen the stuff that they like? They don't care what gender the lead is - some of their leads are just heads stikcing out of toilets! Unfortunately, I think Disney would have to produce nonsense to appeal to them, which I wouldn't want to see. Then again, I'm an old man who has a lawn to tell people to get off of.

At the end of the day, a lot of this is just changes in the market, changes in the business, and changes in society. It has always happened and it always will.

I have 2 Gen Z children. I have a really good idea what my 2 Gen Z children enjoy because I am curious, regularly communicate with them, I am proud of them, and I have continuously shown interest in their lives which means that they share with me.

DS loves all things Japan and Japanese, anime (Kirby, Chainsaw Man and Charizard), OT Star Wars (Vader, Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker) and Indiana Jones, AC/DC and Nirvana, car racing (F1, Indycar, NASCAR, IMSA, or NHRA), the Green Bay Packers and football generally, and American history.

My DTS loves to read classic literature (All The Kings Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Great Expectations, Dante's Inferno, Dickenson poetry), art (Van Gough, Keith Haring and Rembrandt), cats, Pink Floyd and Hozier, OT Star Wars (mostly Han Solo and Leia), the Green Bay Packers, hiking, and every liberal cause known to man.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Yeah, but they are specifically talking about Gen Z - it's more of a generational thing than a gender thing. In my experience the only people who get all fussed about gender are old guys (like me - except not me because I never grew up!). I guarantee you that those Gen Z boys aren't whining about Rey. They don't like Star Wars because old people do. They actually might if they would actually produce some Star Wars movies again, and ones that don't try to cater to the OT fans exclusicely.

Pretty hilarious that you believe the ST catered to OG SW fans. Yeah destroying Luke Skywalker is what OT fans wanted…….geesh!

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

The thing is Disney had two of the biggest Boy brands on the planet in Star Wars and Marvel. Most of these kids grew up watching Marvel in its theatrical prime. Many also grew up loving the Prequels in SW. Now they are walking away from both…..why?

 

[BrianL]

I have 2 Gen Z children. I have a really good idea what my 2 Gen Z children enjoy because I am curious, regularly communicate with them, I am proud of them, and I have continuously shown interest in their lives which means that they share with me.

DS loves all things Japan and Japanese, anime (Kirby, Chainsaw Man and Charizard), OT Star Wars (Vader, Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker) and Indiana Jones, AC/DC and Nirvana, car racing (F1, Indycar, NASCAR, IMSA, or NHRA), the Green Bay Packers and football generally, and American history.

My DTS loves to read classic literature (All The Kings Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Great Expectations, Dante's Inferno, Dickenson poetry), art (Van Gough, Keith Haring and Rembrandt), cats, Pink Floyd and Hozier, OT Star Wars (mostly Han Solo and Leia), the Green Bay Packers, hiking, and every liberal cause known to man.

That's great. People from any group can like many different things. There are always trends though, and anecdotal evidence never tells the whole story. My postulation is that Disney has not chased that generation with Star Wars content that connects with them and instead have chased the older demos by leaning too far into nostalgia. Sure, they might like Star Wars - heck everyone likes Star Wars in a general sense - but it's not one of their passions. Regardless, I seriously doubt their like or dislike of anything has anything to do with gender issues, and that is my point. That's also a GOOD thing, unlike the...men, who can't take it when a girl is the hero.