Marvel Studios is coming off a massive box office failure with its latest release, "The Marvels," a female-led effort that has cinched the record for the biggest second-weekend box office drop in history. One would think the studio would take a moment to reflect on its current strategy of trying to make the MCU into the M-She-U and why it's not working out so well. The Disney-owned studio has been pushing a lot of wokeness in recent projects, including television shows streaming on Disney +, none of which have been a true success.
A lot of talk is circulating that the reason for the lackluster response to Marvel's latest material is superhero movie fatigue. That could be playing a bit role in the disinterest from viewers; there's so much material coming out that you have to watch to keep up with the overall interconnectedness of the film universe that it's overwhelming.
However, I believe the lion's share of Marvel Studios' failure has to do with shoving the feminist agenda down the throats of its audience, which doesn't work because the core audience is men. Male comic book fans don't want to watch project after project with female lead characters — here and there, maybe, but not constant bombardment.
The whole girl power schtick isn't drawing women in to watch these movies. Superheroes are an inherently masculine thing, after all. With that in mind, you'd think the studio might want to drop the feminist push and try something else.
Well, if the rumors are true, Marvel Studios could be gender-swapping the Silver Surfer for its upcoming reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. This is, of course, a huge departure from the source material since the part of the Silver Surfer has always been male in the comics, but who cares about being faithful to the original creator's vision, right? Wokeness is what the people want! That's what delusional studio executives seem to think.
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Keep in mind that this is just a rumor. However, making such a creative choice is very much in line with Marvel Studios' current modus operandi. The rumor was first brought to light by entertainment journalist Jeff Sneider during a recent episode of "The Hot Mic" podcast on Nov. 9.
Sneider told co-host John Rocha that his sources informed him that popular comic book villain Galactus would be part of the film, that one of his four heralds would be a woman, and that the female character was going to be the Silver Surfer.
He made this point once again on his own blog, The InSneider, in a post dated Nov. 15, telling his readers, "And yes, you can expect to see a female Silver Surfer, as I noted on last week's Hot Mic podcast."
We can always hope that this is nothing more than speculation and that the writers over at Marvel will once again focus on telling great stories with great characters instead of pushing progressive wokeness that has grown stale and unimaginative.
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