Megyn Kelly Predicts End of "Woke" Disney

Former Fox News and NBC News correspondent Megyn Kelly devoted a portion of her Sirius XM podcast (“The Megyn Kelly Show”) to The Walt Disney Company on Thursday. She criticized the House of Mouse, calling their latest films “woke” and “flops.”

Related: Fox News Channel Viewers Blame Disney For Tucker Carlson Termination

“The people are not buying this content,” Kelly said. “They don’t want this content.”

She referenced the recent departures of Chief Disney Diversity Officer Latondra Newton and Warner Bros. Discovery diversity, equity, and inclusion executive Karen Horne.

“Bit by bit, all these media companies and big tech companies are eliminating their heads of diversity because it’s just a wasted position where somebody just glorifies their wokeness,” Kelly argued. “So it’s failing.”

“Hopefully, they’ll learn their lesson,” she added.

Kelly referred to what she called film “flops,” specifically Lightyear (2022), The Little Mermaid (2023), Elemental (2023), and Strange World (2022). All four included so-called “woke” elements.

Lightyear included a kiss between a lesbian couple, leading to protests and its ban in multiple countries. Strange World saw a similar fate, as one of its main characters is a gay teenager with a crush on another boy. Both movies featured racially diverse characters.

The Little Mermaid cast Halle Bailey, a Black woman, as Princess Ariel – a white Disney Princess. Though critics acclaimed her performance, the film received widespread racist backlash. Still, it grossed more than its animated counterpart, even adjusted for inflation.

Elemental is a somewhat confusing addition to Kelly’s list. The movie focuses on characters made of water, fire, earth, and air coexisting in a large city. Characters from different backgrounds fall in love, dealing with generational trauma, the in-universe representation of racism, and the struggles of adjusting as an immigrant. Critics called it a “tribute to immigrant parents.”

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