Parents Outraged At New Marvel Addition To Disney+
A group of parents is actively petitioning Disney+ to remove some of its content with a couple of characters at the center of the debate
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Marvel fans have to be more than a little excited about what’s happening regarding content these days on Disney+ with more and more characters added seemingly every day. And there is more to come on that front. That’s because the Netflix catalog of Marvel series, including Daredevil, is making its way to Disney+, uniting most of what’s happened recently from this comic book house under one streaming roof.
But not everyone is pleased with the move and there’s even a group out there trying to actively see that it doesn’t happen. According to Variety, a group called the Parent Television Council is actively petitioning Disney to keep some of the Netflix characters off of the streamer That’s putting Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and others at the forefront now of a “debate” about what constitutes family-friendly programming and where Disney should draw the line with its content.
In a letter to Disney, the folks at the PTC contend that the addition of the Netflix Marvel characters (including Daredevil) to Disney+ wouldn’t be in line with what’s come from the Mouse House in the past. And it wouldn’t jive with what’s acceptable for younger audiences to view. As part of their case, the group first reminded Disney that, in their estimation, the company was built “on the back – and on the wallets – of parents and families” with the streaming service marketing its offerings at the outset as being good for the entire family. Fair enough, I suppose. The letter goes on to say, “It seems wildly ‘off-brand’ for Disney Plus to add TV-MA and R-rated programming to this platform, ostensibly to increase subscription revenue. So what comes next, adding live striptease performances in Fantasyland at Disney World?”
This letter is squarely in reference to the upcoming move, planned for March 16th, that will see the Netflix Defenders group of series land on Disney+ as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings. That group started with Charlie Cox as Daredevil but went on to include Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Mike Colter as Luke Cage, and Finn Jones as Iron Fist. Netflix also had Jon Bernthal as Punisher. Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this group of characters did tend to trend more mature and violent, dealing in a more adult universe than the MCU. From this perspective, they do stand in some contrast to what Marvel has worked to accomplish. But in an effort to have Marvel offerings all under one roof, the move also makes sense from a programming and content point of view.
Bringing over Daredevil and company to Disney+ on March 16th isn’t the only move that’s going to happen that day. It will also mark a shift in the parental controls for the streamer with there now an option to filter out more mature content. It is this piece, probably more than anything, that the PTC is referring to, likely seeing a massive shift in what’s to come for Disney+. That is to say, it will start with the Marvel characters, but it won’t stop there. In this day and age of streaming wars though, it simply wouldn’t make sense for Disney+ to limit its offerings especially when they exist within the same shared universe as other stories.
And we are sure to see even more of these characters moving forward. Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/ Daredevil showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home and there are plans to incorporate him and others into the Marvel Cinematic Universe sooner than later.
