While Disney's live-action Snow White was a massive bomb, one thing that was very noticeable is that the film had undergone massive rewrites in order to cover up what was clearly a very woke film.
This has been a pattern for Disney. Millions of dollars have been spent to see to it that films that had clear issues with messaging went through delays and/or reshoots and rewrites to give us something a little less abrasive. What they usually ended up giving us were disjointed monstrosities that no one ended up liking anyway, but the point was that at that time Disney tried to avoid pushing anything that could anger us politically.
Bob Iger himself did mention during the infamous New York Times Dealbook Summit that Disney had lost sight of the goal to entertain first, and it seems like these attempts to course correct movies, as well as various closures of DEI departments firings of radicals within their midst, shows Iger was at least semi-serious.
Snow White may very well have been the last of the woke era. I still hold that Disney should've shelved it and taken the tax write-off, but it did demonstrate Disney's willingness to choke the woke out of a film, even if it ultimately destroys it.
But we can speculate all day whether Disney has actually changed, and that the Disney we once knew is still in there. We're going to need proof of life in order to believe it. Disney has three upcoming chances to show it, each coming from a different branch of Disney - and it has to nail all three.
The first is the second season of Andor, which will be proof positive that Lucasfilm is releasing something worth watching, and hopefully breathe some life into the long-dead Star Wars universe. It's in desperate need of resuscitation, and Andor is a great series to do that with.
Andor is a series based on the rebel of the show's namesake, initially introduced during Rogue One. It's a gritty spy/action thriller that was even called decent by modern Luscasfilm's most unrelenting critics. However, it went flying well under the radar, as if Lucasfilm itself didn't want people to know it was made, and to this day it's the lowest watched Star Wars creation, a dishonor it doesn't deserve.
However, Disney is going loud with its promotion of season 2, which tells me that they have something to prove. Watching the trailer, I can see why they want us to take notice. This looks far more interesting than anything Lucasfilm has released in years, and it looks as if Star Wars is finally being taken a little more seriously.
Next up is the upcoming live-action Lilo & Stitch film from Disney proper.
Disney's penchant for live-action remakes has left a bad taste in our mouths, but if Disney does this movie right, it'll help on two levels. For one, it will finally be proof that Disney can actually deliver something worth watching and that it can give us that charm we've been missing.
More importantly, it will prove that Disney has returned to respecting itself by respecting its own creations. The Lilo & Stitch trailer looks admittedly fun and true to the original. However, this film would hardly be the ultimate test. Lilo & Stitch is a relatively safe movie because it doesn't have anything that would truly challenge Disney, such as a need to modernize stories that offended modern sensibilities or an abundance of white people it needs to make diverse, even if it makes no sense not to.
Lilo & Stitch is a movie set in Hawaii, with the main themes revolving around the love of family. All Disney has to do is follow the beats given to us in the original, and it will be a great movie, but if it decides to give it the "modern audience" treatment, it will send the message that Disney has learned nothing. That would be disastrous for it on so many levels.
The final and probably the largest hurdle it has to clear is one that everyone has the least faith in, and so making this a good film will do the most for Disney.
Marvel has begun promoting Avengers: Doomsday in earnest now, generating hype by announcing every Marvel star and their dog is going to be featured here. They're even pushing Marvel's most famous leading man, Robert Downey Jr., with almost every video.
Given the lineup, it's clear Marvel — and Disney itself — are pushing all their chips in for this. They have a lot to gain, and even more to lose. If this Avengers movie doesn't wow, or ends up being another star-studded mess of CGI with a broken plot and a bloated budget.
But if Marvel can display it's returning to its roots, this single movie will bring people back to theaters, reinvigorate Disney's fan base, boost morale, and prove that the fire that was suppressed is burning again.
But Disney has to hit homers on all of these. Any misses will cause audiences to walk away, and if they miss on all three, then Disney will sink into the mud with little chance of escaping it for years and years to come. And there are many pitfalls to avoid.
While Disney's been cleaning out the activists in its midst, they aren't all gone. Kathleen Kennedy still helms Lucasfilm, and she's one of the most powerful activists in all of the entertainment industry. Disney might have shuttered its DEI "Reimagine Tomorrow" program, but a lot of that department has been reshuffled into other departments.
Expectations are high, but hopes remain middling.
The pressure is on, but if Disney pulls it off, America's greatest entertainment giant will have come roaring back from a very, very dark time.
