Disney+ Marvel Banner Replaces She-Hulk With Deadpool
Deadpool may really be fixing the MCU. Okay, probably not, but this is still pretty funny. On Disney+, the super successful streaming service that is failing its financial projections to the extent that Disney is combining it with Hulu, the Marvel section has a banner featuring several of the more prominent characters in the new phases of the MCU. The banner used to have She-Hulk, Yelena Belova, Shuri, Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, Scarlet Witch, Nick Fury, and Loki, with Sam Wilson in his Star-Spangled Falcon gear in the middle – an all-star lineup if ever I saw one. (Loki and Nick Fury used to be awesome, but Disney+ ruined them both.) But things change; this month, Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel’s biggest hit in years, arrived on Disney+, and Disney changed the banner to reflect the inclusion of something people actually liked by swapping a character for Deadpool. But it wasn’t Loki or Nick Fury; they removed She-Hulk. You can see the comparison below courtesy of MCU – The Direct:
Disney+ has replaced She-Hulk with #Deadpool on the official Marvel hub banner! pic.twitter.com/4q9OPxymTw
— MCU – The Direct (@MCU_Direct) November 19, 2024
People are laughing on social media, and that’s because it’s funny, but many are taking this as a sign that woke is out at Disney, and that may be premature. ComicBookNews.com points out that this swap makes sense because both characters are known for breaking the fourth wall in the comics and their adaptations, which is true. (The difference in their movie and TV incarnations is that when Deadpool does it, he’s actually funny.) I’m not sure I completely buy that, mostly because I don’t think something like that would have occurred to the Disney people, who don’t seem to know or care much about creative elements like that. They also mention that Tatiana Maslany, the actress who plays She-Hulk, made some comments about Disney being greedy and called Disney CEO Bob Iger “out of touch,” so swapping out She-Hulk for Deadpool may have been payback. I believe that even less; it may have played a small part in it, or at least made Iger smile, but I don’t see them going this far to punish Maslany.
The most likely reason she was chosen is that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has almost certainly been canceled. The characters on the banner are all either in movies or shows that Disney is pushing right now or are expected to return in the near future. She-Hulk was probably going to be the MCU’s all-new, all-different version of the Hulk (I know she wasn’t in the comics; I’m specifically talking about the movies), but her show sucked, and nobody liked it, and Maslany and the writers and producers went out of their way to antagonize Marvel fans – to the extent that they made “toxic fans” the show’s central villains – so she had to go. Deadpool, on the other hand, is insanely popular, his new movie was a box office smash, and there’s no question he’ll show up in future MCU movies, with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars the most likely candidates. DEI is great (or so I’m told), but eventually, you have to push your heavy hitters and drop the losers who’ll never be in a Marvel project again for the guy who draws a paying crowd.
What does this mean for Marvel’s possible rejection of wokeness? Maybe nothing, but it could also be a small step towards removing it from their entertainment. I’m sure it sticks in their craw that nobody liked the hectoring, insufferable wine lady they turned She-Hulk into and that Deadpool remains so much more beloved and in demand than their slate of diverse replacements for popular characters. But they have to face reality sooner or later, at least in small ways like this. What happens to the rest of the banner (which is a nice microcosm of Marvel in general) will likely depend on how well movies like Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* are embraced. If they meet with rejections similar to that of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, we may see a few more changes when the lineup for the next banner is assembled.
Let us know what you think of the Disney+ Marvel banner trading She-Hulk for Deadpool in the comments!
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