Breaking news
One in every of the rest episodes of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur house to release in 2025 will now allegedly now now not secure it to air, based on since-deleted feedback on social media from crew who labored on the Wonder and Disney nice looking series, claiming concerns over the constructing political local weather within the U.S. within the wake of the 2024 presidential election.
The rest episodes of Moon Girl‘s 2d and final season were house to air on the Disney Channel sometime in 2025, but now a minimal of one episode produced for the Wonder series—adapting the titular younger comics heroine, aka Luna Lafayette, and her adventures alongside the grand T-Rex-esque creature Devil Dinosaur—may perchance well furthermore now not secure it to air, supposedly as a result of revolving spherical a plotline interesting the subject of trans younger folks fascinated about college sports activities.
“One in every of the initiatives (episode) I labored on is getting shelved on account of which occasion that won the most current election,” Derrick Malik Johnson, a storyboard artist who labored on Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur acknowledged in a most current, since-deleted submit on the social media platform Bluesky. “It breaks my heart involving this impactful and improbable [episode] is now about to be imagine a misplaced media episode.”
In a thread on the Moon Girl subreddit about Johnson’s submit, someone claiming to have labored on the series alleged that the episode revolved spherical the personality Brooklyn, a teen volleyball participant who attends Luna’s college within the series. “Whilst you happen to position consideration [sic] to little print about the personality, it is seemingly you’ll well figure out about what theme [the episode was based on] and why it was canned,” the individual wrote in a now-deleted roar thread.
io9 was now not in a position to independently take a look at the veracity of the above posts on Bluesky and Reddit, but when reached out for roar, a Disney offer accustomed to the subject confirmed that whereas the episode had been pulled from release, the resolution was revamped a 365 days within the past, and unrelated to concerns over the present political local weather.
The provision further described the reason on the wait on of the episode’s cancelation–particular to the episode itself, quite than Brooklyn as a personality, who has seemed in other areas in Moon Girl–as segment of a rare overview route of the corporate makes with all of its younger folks philosophize, with the intent to be obvious cloth doesn’t potentially push forward discussions spherical social complications sooner than families can have them themselves.
“The Gatekeeper” leaked on-line this week in varied forms, with some sources already pulled thru copyright claims from Disney. Footage from the episode, first reported on by Polygon, sees Brooklyn and her volleyball teammates within the Squirrels preparing for a regional championships match in opposition to one other college.
In pictures from the episode seen by io9, Brooklyn discusses her history of previously being compelled to play on the boys’ volleyball crew, which is overheard by the coach for the rival crew, Greer. The opposing coach then pushes to disqualify Brooklyn from play whereas interrogating the youngster for her Pleasure flag-themed kneepads and for having a water bottle that has a trans flag sticky label on it.
After the Squirrels’ dangle coach defends Brooklyn’s house on the crew,, in further pictures from the episode seen by io9, Greer uses a magical key to lock Brooklyn, Luna (acting as the crew’s water lady), and the rest of the Squirrels in a facsimile of their locker room taking half in hurry room trials in an strive and force a disqualification thru non-participation. This leads to Luna’s only buddy Casey seeking out Devil Dinosaur’s abet to aquire time and keep the day.
The episode is clearly now not subtle about either centering a trans teen personality in Brooklyn, or the enlighten prejudice she faces as a trans teen who desires to participate in college sports activities. “It’s fancy creepy hologram Greer acknowledged, ‘to secure out, you’ve got got to apply my principles,’” Brooklyn says at one level within the episode after she, Luna, and the crew fail to hurry the locker room. “I’m trans. My very existence breaks Greer’s principles… how many doorways? How many doorways originate I in level of reality must rupture thru sooner than they ruin locking me out?”
Even though conservative politicians have spent diverse years pushing wait on in opposition to the inclusion of trans athletes in purported “ladies folk’s areas,” especially in college sports activities, anti-trans rhetoric was ramped up within the closing months of the most current U.S. presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, with the Republican occasion spending an estimated $215 million on campaign TV ads focusing on trans complications across the election. For Disney to air an episode of a series in defense of trans childhood athletes would set up the corporate straight away within the spotlight precise as Trump prepares to come wait on to the White Rental for a 2d timeframe, so its purported scrubbing would come as no surprise, especially given Disney’s history spherical LGBTQ commentary in its varied studios’ initiatives.
In 2022, Disney was infamously on the heart of discussions spherical Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Inform Homosexual” bill, after facing internal dissent for a lack of vocal give a seize to by the corporate to stand up to the bill’s plans to control discussion of LGBTQ subject matters in Florida colleges. On the time, Disney was at some level of of transferring diverse of its operations into Florida, the put it furthermore affords a foremost enhance to the local economic system thru the operation of Walt Disney World.
Staff at Pixar further alleged that Disney had explicitly reduced LGBTQ characters and plotlines in its cloth “down to crumbs” after company overview in an open letter launched in March 2022.
After a series of apt disputes with DeSantis’ administration, and formally deciding to come wait on out in opposition to the legislation, Disney at final buried the hatchet earlier this 365 days, negotiating up to $17 billion in future investment into expansion of Walt Disney World.
It wouldn’t be the first time Disney has capitulated to upright-flit programs of power by censoring its dangle cloth, and likely won’t be the final. AdWeek reported on the present time that Disney was one among diverse valuable companies who had begun returning to spending marketing on X, having paused unhurried final 365 days over concerns with the platform’s then-new proprietor, Elon Musk. Musk has on a rare foundation frail his prominence on the platform to uplift anti-trans commentary and enlighten his dangle anti-trans beliefs. He’ll play a foremost role within the incoming Trump administration; the President-Elect announced earlier this week that Musk will co-chair a new “Division of Executive Efficiency” aimed at chopping break within the federal government.
Substitute 11/15 5.25pm: This article has been up so far to incorporate commentary from a Disney offer.
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