Disney Groomer Corporation Looks to Slash Workforce by 20% Because of Declining Revenues

Palate cleanser, and early. I think we need it.

Some good news, by which I mean bad news for bad people:

The Walt Disney Company is looking at eliminating thousands of positions and has asked some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings, according to multiple media reports.

The possible job cuts come as CEO Josh D'Amaro is reportedly facing challenges from growing AI use, weaker box office revenue, mounting competition from streaming challengers and a slowdown in theme park attendance abroad, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.

It's almost as if alienating your (former) core audience with divisive family-unfriendly "inserting queerness" messaging has consequences.

And this isn't the first round of cuts:

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Still, the company has made a number of substantial cuts this year. In fact, just last week, the Walt Disney Company's theme parks division laid off between 100 and 200 people.

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The decision came after Disney offered voluntary early retirement packages in August to executives as part of a cost-reduction effort.

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Prior to this memo, Disney had eliminated 1,000 roles in April, as well as made staff cuts in July and September. The September staff reductions impacted an additional couple hundred employees, mainly in the tech and HR areas.

In further Everything Is Gay news, Ben Wishlaw, who played a young "Q" since Skyfall, was disinvited from returning to the series when it reboots.

He says that he was disappointed, like George Takei was, that, while his character was made Officially Gay, for some reason a franchise in which he is only a secondary player chose to focus on the main characters instead of his secondary character's sexual leanings.

Ben Whishaw has confirmed he won't be returning as Q in the Bond franchise.

Whishaw, 46, played 007's tech wizard Q for nine years, appearing in Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).

At just 31 when he was cast, he was the youngest actor to play the MI6 gadgets master; replacing John Cleese.

He was a bit of a drip if I'm being honest but I don't know if I can blame him for that. Everyone in the "Bond" movies -- I don't know if they really were even Bond movies at all -- was a sad-sack Low Energy Jeb after Casino Royale, probably because the idiot playing Bond thought that dour and depressive = realistic and gritty.

Oh, and of course Daniel Craig wanted Bond himself to be acknowledged as gay. I guess making Q gay was the Safety School of sexuality reveals.

In a 2024 interview, the actor shared his hunch that producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson will 'start all over again' with a completely new cast following Daniel Craig's departure as 007.

Last year Amazon MGM Studios struck a deal with longtime franchise stewards Broccoli and Wilson to take full control of Ian Fleming's franchise, and with auditions finally taking place for the lead role, Whishaw has confirmed his suspicions of a complete overhaul were correct.

The Sunday Times writes that Whishaw 'won't be in the next instalment', whilst talking to the actor about his acting back catalogue.

Whishaw said in the interview: 'I rarely think about Bond... that would be weird' as he mused about the fervent speculation around the reboot.

Me too. I was a onetime Bond fanatic and now don't even care who the next Fake Bond Actor will be.

Whilst he hasn't dwelled on his time with 007, Whishaw does have one regret about his portrayal of Q -- admitting that his character's homosexuality felt 'unsatisfying' because although there is a brief reference to him going on a date with a man in No Time to Die, his sexuality isn't picked up on again.

I mean, why would it be? It's the Bond Franchise not Q's Grindr Adventures.

It's a typical corporate move to make a minor character "canonically gay" for Twitter attention and then drop the matter.

In more James Bond news (and you can tell how checked out I am because I'm adding this as an afterthought instead of featuring it as big entertainment news), they have supposedly cast the new Bond.

As Nerdorotic said: He's white, so that's something.

I think one of those geeks also said something like "He's a decent pick of you're making a realistic movie about SAS operatives from the working or middle class, but not so much for a gentleman spy franchise."

I don't know. I've never seen a movie with him in it, except one of the "Fantastic Beasts" movies where he played, I'm guessing, a very secondary role. I have no memory of him (as I don't really remember the Fantastic Beast movie, except for Randy Daytona, who I really liked).

Update: He played who I guessed he played, "Newt Scamander's" brother, who's in the second movie for like three minutes.

He's also in the upcoming Neuromancer. I don't see him as Bond but I usually don't see actors as Bond. I think I approved of Pierce Brosnan. Otherwise, I'm usually cool on the new castings.

He's got big ears but they've got CGI for that.

You know the 00's in 007 are supposed to resemble eyes? Well now they can suggest ears.

The new Bond will be a Good Listener for women.

Now is the time where everyone will say "They should have cast Henry Cavill" which I sort of agree with but a commenter here pointed out that Cavill is now 40 and they're looking for someone who can play Bond for 10-15 years.

Also, although I like Henry Cavill, and loved his turn as Napoleon Solo, but I don't know if I can see him except as Napoleon Solo.

Eh, who cares, the franchise is dead. The always-wants-to-play-gay-and-dour Daniel Craig and Barbara Wilson put it into a coma with their boring Fake Gritty tone, and now that the Rings of Power Brain Trust at Amazon bought it for several billion dollars, it's officially dead.

Update: Or maybe it's this guy, Jack Lowden, who was apparently in Dunkirk.

Was Elliot Page unavailable for that one?

Apparently Denis Villaneuve will be directing the new Bond movie.

Can I express my Unpopular Opinion without being geekshamed?

Denis Villaneuve is a deeply boring director. He's one of those guys who thinks "prestige" = "slow and Low Energy." A lot of people believe that now.

I was bored by Dune and Dune 2, and I'm not against the story or anything. It's just his need to make everything slow to seem important and weighty almost put me to sleep.

There's just no fun in those movies. They're like big important documentaries about The Holocaust, except it's not a documentary about the Holocaust, it's a fictional movie about galactic civil war in the hundredth century and giant sandworms.

I have similar thoughts on The Batman. Yes I like these stories to be "taken seriously."

But not that seriously. Come on, it's a Batman movie.

I did like the Riddler and his creepy riddles, though. That was very good.

You can now attack me. I will step up and be a scapegoat for the recent unpleasantness. My bad takes will unite us all.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:20 PM

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