The Gina Carano case: how Favreau saved Disney (again)... and how Disney screwed it.
I've said it more than once: Favreau is the guy behind the big success of Disney. The Marvel movies? It started with the first two IronMan. Favreau created the formula and Disney made tons of money repeating it again and again. The classic animated movies reboots? It started with Favreau's Jungle's Book. Again, Favreau created the formula and Disney made tons of money repeating it again and again.
Fast forward to present and Disney+. Disney has become openly woke and that's a problem when you want to reach a big audience. They're losing track in Asia (which dislikes wokeness, Mulan was a big failure), and they're losing audience in western countries that don't want to be evangelized in the woke gospel.
Favreau arrives to the Star Wars franchise to save the day: he makes The Mandalorian. This show should be studied as the perfect precision tool. Don't get me wrong: it's a woke show, Disney execs wouldn't allow otherwise. But Favreau is the clever guy in the room and he decides to do it in a way that hides it.
Do you know that woke golden rule "bad guys are white males and good guys are non-white or female"?. He cast an hispanic dude as main character (box checked!)... and then put him permanently under a helmet. The Jedi Kid? Usually, they would have used a black kid. Instead of it, he uses a mini-Yoda. It's cute. It's popular. And what matters for Disney execs: it's not a white kid (box checked!). Then we have the usual the "badass female" as a secondary main character (box checked!), but he casts Carano, who was a MMA fighter, a real badass female and it's actually credible in the role.
As I said: the show is a precision tool. It checks the woke boxes, but in a very tricky way. It manages to reach that audience that was getting sick of the woke gospel. Disney+ gets subscribers.
It seems that Favreau saved Disney again, doesn't it? But worry not! Disney can still screw it. The show has managed to reach a big audience by hiding its wokeness. So the WORST thing Disney could do right now is to remind that audience how woke they really are. And do that just when they're preparing to release a big bunch of series.
The audience: you wouldn't do such a stupid thing, would you? would you???
Disney: hold my beer.