Bob Iger's 'Supervision' Comment About The Marvels Crossed A Line
For years, Bob Iger has been seen as one of the most level-headed and respected studio chiefs in Hollywood. The two-time Walt Disney Company CEO has been widely praised for his shrewd deal-making (this was the man who orchestrated the acquisition of marquee brands like Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Marvel), and he also had a reputation as an executive who actually respected the creative community. But lately, it feels like Iger has started to slip in some pretty big ways.
Iger became a temporary villain of this year's WGA strike when he said the writers were being "not realistic" about their needs, and called them "disruptive" for striking. And yesterday, Iger made another gaffe when he appeared at the New York Times' DealBook Summit and made an extremely condescending remark toward Nia DaCosta, who directed "The Marvels" for Marvel Studios.
"'The Marvels' was shot during Covid," Iger said. "There wasn't as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives there really looking over what's being done day after day after day."
The implication in that statement is that Nia DaCosta is akin to a child who needs adults in the room around to keep her from making too much of a mess. That "supervision" comment sounds like something former Disney CEO Bob Chapek would have said — the guy who fanned the flames of a Scarlett Johansson lawsuit against the company over its handling of "Black Widow" instead of dealing with it internally, behind closed doors. It was expected that the ugliest corners of the internet would go after Nia DaCosta, but to see Iger, a man held up as being one of the best execs in entertainment, essentially throw her under the bus? That's just unprofessional. Would he have said this about a white guy?
Iger should know better
Websites have jumped on practically every opportunity they can to celebrate Marvel Studios' downfall, and I understand the impulse to kick Marvel while they're down — especially after they helped reshape Hollywood in such a significant way and helped contribute to the current state of Hollywood. But the reaction this film is receiving is ridiculously out of proportion with its quality: "The Marvels" is a fun but flawed movie, but there have been tons of worse films in the MCU that haven't received this much vitriol. This is not DaCosta's fault, but an accumulation of factors (some of which, to be fair, Iger also talked about at that summit — most importantly, the rapid increase in the number of Marvel projects to help feed Disney+).
Let's give Iger the benefit of the doubt for a second. Let's say I'm reading too much into his comment, and he didn't mean anything by it. He should still be savvy enough to know that absolutely anything he said about Marvel was going to be circulated around social media, and framed with headlines like this one from Variety, which reads in part "'The Marvels' Suffered From a Lack of 'Supervision on the Set,' Says Bob Iger". He obviously can't control how the media decides to frame every single one of his statements, but at the same time ... come on. He definitely knows better.
Best case scenario? This was just another self-inflicted blunder from a guy who built his career by being smart enough to avoid gaffes like that.
Nia DaCosta and The Marvels do not deserve this
In my view, Iger crossed a line here, and if he wants to continue to be seen as an executive with close ties to the creative community, he may want to go back to treating the creative community with respect.
I spoke about this with /Film editor BJ Colangelo on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:
We also spoke about that wild "Furiosa" trailer, sequels to "The Black Phone" and "Thanksgiving," and more.
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