Alright, folks, let’s talk about something that feels like a rare event in Hollywood these days—a Disney project that isn’t pushing a woke agenda. Yeah, you heard that right. According to Hudson Thames, the voice actor behind Peter Parker in Disney’s latest Marvel animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, this new show isn’t following the same leftist trajectory that has turned so many recent Disney projects into lecture-heavy, box office disasters.
Now, let’s be clear—this isn’t some internet rumor or a “bad-faith” complaint from so-called “outraged” fans. This is coming directly from someone involved in the project. In an interview with Collider, Thames admitted his biggest fear going into the show was that it was going to be “annoying and woke”—a totally fair concern, considering how Disney has operated over the past few years. But to his surprise? The script was actually solid.
“I was like, ‘Yes, this is great, it’s so well written,’” Thames said. “It feels real.”
And that, right there, is the key word—real. Because let’s face it, one of the biggest problems with modern entertainment is that Hollywood has traded in real stories and characters for ideological messaging. And people have noticed.
Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars franchises have been struggling, to put it mildly. After years of woke-driven storytelling, audiences have responded with… well, their wallets. The Marvels, a film that seemed to exist solely to tick identity politics boxes, bombed at the box office. Star Wars: The Acolyte, another project that prioritized gender and racial checklists over actual storytelling, was so unpopular that it was canceled after just one season. And of course, when that happened, the lead actress blamed its failure on conservative bigots. Because obviously, the problem couldn’t possibly be that audiences just didn’t like it.
Even Disney investors have had enough. Nelson Peltz, a billionaire shareholder, straight-up called out Disney for turning its once-golden franchises into message vehicles instead of entertainment. In an interview with The Financial Times, he pointed out the obvious:
"People go to watch a movie or a show to be entertained. They don’t go to get a message."
Exactly! Audiences aren’t against diversity or strong female leads—but they are against being force-fed ideological lectures instead of being given good stories. Peltz put it bluntly when he questioned why Disney was obsessed with making Marvel movies that were all women, instead of just making good movies with both male and female characters. You’d think that wouldn’t be controversial, but in Hollywood today, common sense is apparently radical.
Now, the big question: Has Disney finally learned its lesson?
Well, Thames’ comments about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man being free from political nonsense are definitely a step in the right direction. And let’s be honest—if there’s one character Marvel really can’t afford to mess up, it’s Spider-Man. He’s one of the most universally beloved heroes in comic book history. Fans want Peter Parker, not a focus-group-approved version of him designed to satisfy Twitter activists.
The show’s creator, Jeff Trammell, also seems to be emphasizing story over spectacle, saying:
"He’s hanging around New York; it’s not a huge intergalactic adventure."
Simple. Classic. No forced identity politics. Just Spider-Man being Spider-Man. Imagine that!
So, does this mean Disney is officially moving away from woke nonsense? Too early to tell. But if they have finally figured out that audiences want entertainment—not activism—it’s only because they’ve been slapped in the face by failure after failure. Maybe they’re starting to realize that telling good stories is actually the secret to box office success. What a concept.