The trailer for “The Marvels”, unveiled last Tuesday by Disney, has received a record-number of "dislikes" on YouTube in just three days.
It did receive 17 million total views on Marvel’s YouTube channel, but a whopping 500,000 dislikes as of this morning. No other MCU trailer has ever had these kind of negative numbers.
Is this a sign of “superhero fatigue” or “misogyny”? If you go to most of the online film sites, they’ll be telling you it’s the latter, but can’t it be both?
Rolling Stone, of course, says the backlash is due to the “misogynist side of Marvel fandom.” ScreenRant’s insane theory that bots were hired by the misogynists to rally up the dislikes is definitely out there. Ditto Jezebel’s belief that “sexist Marvel fans” were responsible for over half a million dislikes.
It’s as if some can’t fathom that maybe, just maybe, the trailer sucked? All these journalists are right on cue, going to bat for Disney by screaming “MISOGYNY!”
Also, research has shown that over 80% of Marvel movie watchers are male. So, it’s not just “fanboys” who are hating on “The Marvels,” but, really, just … fans.
Misogyny is not the whole truth here. Fact of the matter is that disappointing box-office results for “Black Adam”, “Ant-Man 3” and “Shazam 2” have caused some studio execs to hit the panic button.
Nia DaCosta’s “The Marvels” could surely become another disappointment for Marvel, but it’s really too early to say. It’s only being released in November. However, signs of fatigue are starting to show.
“The Marvel” is said to bring together the heroines of “Captain Marvel” and “Ms. Marvel”, as well as Nick Fury, still played by Samuel L. Jackson. It will be released in theaters on November 8.
