Disney Wants Ideas For Movies That Will Appeal To Young Men. I Have A Few

The Federalist ^ | 08/22/2025 | John Daniel Davidson

[SeekAndFind]

Making original films for young men isn’t that hard, but you have to quit pushing gay race communism and appeal to masculine virtue.

Executives at Walt Disney Studios are reportedly pressing Hollywood creatives for movie ideas that will bring young men back to the theaters. According to Variety, Disney is hoping to get Gen Z men, which it defines as ages 13 to 28, interested in original films.

“The sources say Disney has been seeking new IP and pitches such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor,” Variety reports. “The calls come as the Star Wars machine struggles to produce any film project and the superhero genre sheds audiences by the minute.”

Disney of course made a fortune churning out forgettable Marvel superhero films and much-maligned Star Wars entries over the last two decades. But thanks largely to Disney’s mismanagement, those wells have run dry. So the studio is looking for something to draw young men back to the cinema.

No one asked me, but I have a few ideas — and some advice — that I’ll throw out there all the same.

First the advice. You know what doesn’t appeal to young men? Girlboss BIPOC heroines who beat up men twice their size. Villains who are all straight white men. Everything being gay. Constantly being lectured to and propagandized about DEI and LGBT stuff. Young men hate that. As Jesse Kelly aptly put it on X, “You cannot appeal to young men with ‘girl power’ crap. You cannot appeal to young men by gaying everything up as much as possible. Those two things are central pillars of the cultural Marxist worldview. Therefore, young men will continue to reject them.”

And they’ll reject them for the same reason they rejected the Democrat Party in the last election and military recruitment fell off a cliff during the Biden administration. When you make the military as gay and effeminate as possible, you’re going to turn off young men. It’s not rocket science. It’s a similar dynamic to the Cracker Barrel rebrand that resulted in $2 billion of that company’s value being destroyed over the last five years because woke executives wanted to shove gay race communism down the throats of people who just wanted to enjoy a meal in a folksy old country diner setting.

Cracker Barrel patrons aren’t generally interested in gay race communism, and neither are young men. What young men are interested in is what they have always been interested in: adventure, adversity, heroism, and manly virtue. They want stories that appeal to their sense of nobility, their yearning for sacrifice and glory, their desire to persevere through hardship, punish evildoers, rescue the girl, and save the town.

Rather than list a catalogue of old films that do this, let’s take a recent example from U.S. politics. Why did a majority of men under 30 vote for Trump, swinging 28 points from 2020 to 2024? Maybe it was because they saw that Biden and the Democrats had nothing but contempt for them and nothing to offer but victimhood and effeminate grievance culture. Maybe they also saw Trump get shot in the face, stand up bloodied and yell “Fight!” with a raised fist, and in that moment they recognized real courage in the face of mortal danger.

If you understand that this is what appeals to young men, then the movie scripts pretty much write themselves. Make movies with masculine heroes — not necessarily muscle-bound meatheads or ridiculous superheroes, but real men who are heroes because they’re willing to suffer and deny themselves for a greater good, detach from their own desires to pursue justice, and lay down their lives to protect those under their charge.

Smart filmmakers understand this intuitively. Christopher Nolan is reportedly working on an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, due out next summer. It’s probably going to be a blockbuster. Mel Gibson is now finally filming “The Resurrection of the Christ,” a two-part follow-up to his 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ,” which grossed nearly $610 million worldwide. Gibson is also working on a limited TV series about the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, when a small contingent of knights and Maltese citizens repelled a vastly superior Ottoman force.

These are the kinds of films and TV shows young men want to see. If Disney, or any other production company, wants to appeal to young men and not just lecture at them, then make films that are unapologetically American and Christian. Make films about crusaders in which the crusaders are the heroes (unlike Ridley Scott’s botched effort in 2005’s Kingdom of Heaven). Make films about the American Revolution (there are precious few good ones). Make sympathetic films and TV series about the great European explorers and conquistadors, the pioneers who settled the American continent, and the soldiers who fought in the Civil War — on both sides. Revive the great tradition of the American western that gave us the catalogues of Sam Peckinpah and John Ford. Make a TV series based on the Hardy Boys — one that actually resembles the original books. Make sci-fi action films about America competing against China to colonize the moon or Mars — in which China is the villain, just like in real life.

And don’t worry about the Chinese market at all, or any international markets. Just make films for American audiences that are pro-American. One of the reason’s Tom Cruise’s 2022 film Maverick was so successful is that it wasn’t preaching woke nonsense. It was just a fun, patriotic action film with awesome stunts, a great cast, and a compelling storyline. Just do that.

If Disney wanted to — and it doesn’t, not really — it could make countless films and TV shows that deeply appeal to young men. It would be the easiest thing in the world to do. But to do that, Disney would have to repudiate its woke ideology and quit trying to lecture young men about how masculinity is toxic, America is bad, Christianity is oppressive, and everything should be gay. And let’s be honest: Disney is incapable of doing that.

But that’s okay. These movies and shows are just waiting to be made, and whoever decides to make them is going to be glad they did. So will the rest of us, especially the young men.

---

John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pagan America: the Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come.

[packrat35]

Nobody 2 came out last week. I plan to see it tomorrow.

[SeekAndFind]

Mel Gibson’s HACKSAW RIDGE is a masterpiece in celebrating the courage of a man who rescued dozens of men in battle without taking up arms.

The film depicts the true story of the World War II experiences of Desmond Doss, an American combat medic in the United States Army who, as a Seventh-day Adventist, refused to carry or use weapons of any kind. He became the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for saving an estimated 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa

Disney should look into making more films like this.

[al_c]

How about a remake of Old Yeller where nobody shoots the dog and they all die of rabies? What the heck, the original was a downer anyway.

I've got a Black Mouth Cur. She's a wonderful dog, but very protective of her people and home. At the same time, she absolutely loves people. She'd be tough to shoot even if she did have rabies.

[desertsolitaire]

It's been done (By Troma films)

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

They need to revive the original adult-oriented Touchstone Pictures, which released:

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Color of Money
Three Men and a Baby
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Armageddon
Signs

By the mid-2010s, Disney was no longer using the Touchstone label for producing its own mature films, and it effectively stopped its active production role by 2016.

After 2016, the brand continued to exist primarily as a distribution banner for films made by other studios, such as DreamWorks from 2011 to 2016.

Importantly, there should be no connection with the new Touchstone production team and *any* of the people who are part of the existing production team. (Who will be definitely trying to infect the new team.)

[desertsolitaire]

I’d like to make a film where Denzel Washington plays a bit part as a doorman. And Whitney Huston as a maid in a small role. Stereotyped as you like or no. They might even do it for the shear irony and hilarity of the concept.

[wally_bert]

Girl in gold boots.

[Freedumb]

Who should play his hooker girlfriend (played by Linda Evans in the original)? Sydney Sweeney?

[17th Miss Regt]

There is no one "normal" left in Hollywood except for Tom Cruise.

Uh, no. Scientologist.

[wally_bert]

Good a choice as any.

How about the mustang hood?

Who would that be?

[Gamecock]

Perhaps a remake?

[Repeat Offender]

Maybe they could do a live action movie about a multi-billion dollar theme park that has a Tranny Godmother meet kids at the entrance and a bunch of jerkoffs run the company into the ground. Joe Blow and his friends by the theme park for pennies on the dollar, bulldoze everything and build the world’s largest Bass Pro Shop with an ATV track, figure 8 demolition derby course, and small arms indoor/outdoor gun ranges, some paintball courses, and jetskis on a manmade bass stocked lake. During all of this he meets some smokeshow libtard MBA princess who doesn’t listen to her father. Joe civilizes her and introduces her to Jesus, Beer, and Guns. She stops being a raging shrew. Joe makes an honest woman out of her and they live happily ever after. The princess’ father is proud to call Joe his son-in-law now that his daughter no longer a commie lunatic.

[PfromHoGro]

I’ll have to add Laserblast to that one.

[DeplorablePaul]

Yep. Dirty Harry would be a blockbuster. Perfect for the Trump era.

Mayor: Drebin, I don’t want anymore trouble like you had last year on the South Side. Understand? That’s my policy.

Frank: Yes. Well, when I see 5 weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards. That’s *my* policy.

Mayor: That was a Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of “Julius Caesar”, you moron! You killed 5 actors! Good ones.

[albie]

A Fistful of Dollars! Hang Em High! Deathwish 1, 2, 3, and 4. Platoon! 1917! Dunkirk! Godfather! Goodfellas! Donnie Brasco! So many choices!!

[cnsmom]

Top Gun meets Sidney Sweeney. She is the future for Hollywood.

[central_va]

How about a movie about a redneck Jedi?
You May be a
Redneck Jedi if…

You’ve ever said, “May the force be with y’all.”

Your Jedi robe is camouflage.

At least one wing of your X-Wing is primer-colored.

Even though you had to kill him, you thought Jabba the Hutt had a pretty good handle on how to treat his women.

In your opinion, that Darth Vader feller “just ain’t right.”

Jawas come to you for used parts.

Last Christmas you bought a friend a hanging air freshener for his X-Wing.

Parts of a TIE fighter you once blew up hang in your living room as trophies.

People mistake your house for a Jawa, used droids, and speeder parts dealership.

Stealing Imperial shuttles is a family outing.

The doors of your X-wing are welded shut and so you climb in through the window.

The front of your landspeeder has bantha horns.

The smell of ham or bacon reminds you of Jabba’s Gamorean guards.

You can describe the taste of Ewok.

You can levitate yourself using a force from within, but not The Force.

You consider a peaceful meditation session is one without gas.

You ever fell in love with your sister.

You find no grammatical errors or syntax problems with the way Yoda talks.

You have at least one droid held together with baling wire and/or duct tape.

You have ever used baling wire and/or duct tape to repair your landspeeder.

You have ever used The Force in conjunction with a bowling or spitting contest.

You have ever used The Force to get yourself another beer so you didn’t have to wait for a commercial.

You have the words “Foxy Lady” painted on your landspeeder.

You have your droid pipe Box Car Willie into your X-Wing on long flights.

You inherited a Styrofoam cooler and a tackle box along with your light saber.

You know that duct tape is like the force: it has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together.

You never read the entire Jedi manual because it didn’t have pictures.

You own a pink flamingo with blaster holes in it.

You suggested that they outfit the Millennium Falcon with a redwood deck.

You think Han Solo would look better in a flannel than that sissy vest.

You think that Jabba the Hutt really knows how to pick up good-looking chicks.

You think that people who buy new droids is uppity.

You think that Stormtroopers are just KKK members with really tough sheets.

You use the “O” on stop signs to sight in your new blaster.

You were the only person drinking Jack Daniels on the rocks during the cantina scene.

You wished that Admiral Ackbar was swimming in the pond on your farm back home.

You wore burlap even before you started your Jedi training.

You’re flying a ship with no original parts.

You’ve ever accidentally referred to Darth Vader’s evil empire as “them damn Yankees.”

You’ve ever asked an Ewok to go coon hunting with you.

You’ve ever attended an Alliance medal ceremony in flip-flops and a robe.

You’ve ever fantasized about Princess Leah in Daisy Duke shorts.

You’ve ever looked at your sister, thought she was one hot babe, and kissed her.

You’ve ever said, “I’m fixin’ ta git dat bounty hunter.”

You’ve ever used a storm trooper helmet as a spittoon.

You’ve ever used The Force in conjunction with fishing or bowling.

You’ve ever used The Force to give someone a wedgie.

You’ve ever used your R-2 unit’s self-defense electroshock thingy to light your barbecue grill.

You’ve got a stuffed womp rat from Begger’s Canyon on your mantle.

You’ve moved from planet to planet to avoid Imperial storm troopers.

Your beer belly shames Jabba the Hutt.

Your best practical joke was sticking a banana in Boba Fett’s tail pipe.

Your cousin bears a strong resemblance to Chewbacca.

Your father has ever said to you, “Shoot, son. Come on over to the dark side! It’ll be a hoot.”

Your favorite bar caters primarily to smugglers and bounty hunters.

Your favorite meals on Dagoba incorporate native snakes.

Your initiation into the Rebellion required parallel parking the Millennium Falcon.

Your Jedi master ever said “My finger you will pull.... hmmmmmm?”

Your landspeeder has a blaster rack in the back.

Your landspeeder is painted with a Confederate flag.

Your wedding cake was sliced with a light saber.

Your X-Wing’s cockpit has fuzzy dice.

You’ve been on a blind date arranged through an invitation written on a cantina napkin.

You’ve called the Emperor “That old ugly dude in the house coat.”

You’ve had an X-wing up on blocks in your yard.

You’ve had your R-2 unit use its self-defense electro-shock thingie to light your barbecue grill.

You’ve used your light saber to clean your teeth, clean fish, or open a beer bottle.

You’ve lost a hand in a light-saber fight because you had to spit.

[left that other site]

Well, there is a Rock Video about that.

It’s more exciting than most disney movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxlRJsQ7p2k

[BenLurkin]

I don’t think her looks are going to hold up very long. A couple of years at most. She doesn’t have the classic facial features which sustain beauty into late adulthood and beyond. Nothing against her, it’s just genetics.

/meow off

[catnipman]

Produce movies or TV series based on the rest of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ books and stories that haven’t yet been produced, using ONLY talented and successful writers and directors ...

“South Moon Under” comes to mind ...

same goes for Sinclair Lewis