Oh, so now Disney realizes they’ve got a “boy problem.” Bravo. Took them long enough. According to Variety, the House of Mouse is scratching its head trying to figure out why Gen Z males — described (rather patronizingly) as “lonely, gaming-obsessed” and forever scarred by lockdowns — have ghosted the Disney brand like an ex who finally figured out they were being used.
And how are the corporate minds at Disney tackling this existential crisis?
Treasure hunts.
Yep. Splashy global adventures, international storylines, maybe some jungle maps and glowing amulets — because that’s going to fix years of storytelling that went out of its way to mock, marginalize, and neuter any semblance of healthy masculinity. Sure, fellas, we tore down the idea of heroes, but look — here’s a fedora and a mysterious artifact!
Cue the eye roll.
They alienated loyal male fans by reshaping major franchises to prioritize inclusivity. Is the backlash really a surprise?
Now, Disney is pivoting to win back young male audiences. It seems like everyone, from media to politics, is trying to “win men back”… but is it too late? pic.twitter.com/1UGvHphXzw
— Lisa Britton (@LisaBritton) August 21, 2025
Author and former Trump speechwriter Bill Rivers isn’t buying it either. He doesn’t think the issue is about content budgets or gimmicky quests. It’s not about where the story is set. It’s about what kind of story isn’t being told anymore — and more importantly, who those stories have been systematically rejecting.
For years, Disney knew how to speak to young men. It gave us epic tales of honor, courage, sacrifice, and yeah, some good old-fashioned swashbuckling. Luke Skywalker had a destiny. Iron Man had consequences. Jack Sparrow had swagger. Now? You’ve got repurposed franchises with all the soul of a government PSA, overstuffed with ideological sermons nobody asked for, and somehow even less humor.
And Rivers is blunt: Disney’s wounds are self-inflicted.
When you treat masculine virtue as toxic, don’t be shocked when the young men who once idolized your characters start checking out. When everything remotely courageous, noble, or chivalrous gets rebranded as problematic, why would these guys stick around? You made the castle; you locked the gates.
Disney is regretting their decade-long decision to run men away.https://t.co/lRB8IJ7GGL pic.twitter.com/Yjja8eiYB2
— The Matt Walsh Show (@MattWalshShow) August 23, 2025
But here’s where it gets especially twisted: Rivers argues this wasn’t just anti-male. It backfired on women, too.
How? Simple. By shoving men out of these cultural spaces, the stories lost what made them magnetic to both genders: meaningful conflict, sacrifice, growth — the kind of stuff that makes characters worth rooting for and stories worth remembering. Instead, we got endless moralizing, half-baked scripts, and protagonists who feel more like Twitter threads than people.
Just like this. And they wonder why they’re losing the male audience:
This is why Disney is losing MILLIONS
According to the next Star Wars movie director, the movie’s objective is to “make men uncomfortable.”
Why does the left have to ruin EVERYTHING?
— E (@ElijahSchaffer) January 3, 2024
Now Disney execs are reportedly exploring “traditional” story arcs again — not because they believe in them, mind you, but because the numbers are brutal. You can only slap nostalgia on warmed-over Marvel slop for so long before the audience realizes they’re being played.
And let’s not ignore the real villain in this saga: the ideology that told us stories needed to be corrected, not celebrated. The same ideology that saw heroism as privilege, strength as oppression, and brotherhood as exclusion. The ideology that cheered lockdowns that disconnected boys from friends, mentors, sports, structure — then turned around and labeled their coping mechanisms “obsessions.”
Newsflash: Gen Z guys aren’t hiding in video games because they’re immature. They’re in there because the real world, especially pop culture, told them they weren’t welcome.
Want to bring them back? Rivers says it’s simple. Tell stories that respect them. Give them characters who actually earn something. High stakes. Real consequences. Brotherhood. Patriotism. Purpose. You know, the stuff that used to define American storytelling before it got filtered through ten layers of HR-approved messaging.
And yes, women love those stories too. Because at the end of the day, everyone responds to authenticity.
Rivers even calls this crisis a gift. Because if Disney can stop pretending that tradition is a threat — and start tapping into the deep reservoir of American storytellers who still believe in heroism, meaning, and courage — then this isn’t just about fixing the bottom line.
It’s about reviving a culture.
So go ahead, Disney. Keep chasing your treasure maps. But maybe, just maybe, try telling a story where the treasure isn’t buried under a pile of virtue signals.
It might just save you.
