If you're running Disney, maybe don't jump into another studio's firestorm unless you're ready to get burned by it.
That's why the latest Josh D'Amaro mess caught my attention. As backlash keeps building around Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and the casting controversy surrounding Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, D'Amaro reportedly decided this was the moment to lecture the public. Not calm the conversation down. Not stay in his lane. Not protect Disney from more culture-war fatigue. He stepped in and made it bigger.
And that's the real story here.
The immediate controversy is obvious enough. A lot of viewers, especially people who care about Greek history and myth, are angry about what they see as another race-swapped legacy role. Others are defending the casting and calling the backlash racist or politically motivated. That's already a powder keg. Universal has its hands full. Nolan has his hands full. The last thing this situation needed was Disney's new CEO barging in with a sermon about DEI.
But that seems to be exactly what happened.
According to the remarks now circulating online, D'Amaro framed Lupita Nyong'o as someone being unfairly targeted, defended DEI as a legitimate business model, and suggested critics are basically fueling a fabricated culture war. If those statements are accurate, then he didn't just defend an actress. He turned a casting backlash into a broader public fight about ideology, corporate messaging, and whether studios still understand why audiences are tired.
That is a terrible instinct.
First, The Odyssey is not a Disney film. It's a Universal film. So when the Disney CEO inserts himself into the controversy, people naturally ask why. The answer seems pretty clear: Disney has history with Lupita Nyong'o through Black Panther and Wakanda Forever, and D'Amaro apparently felt compelled to stand beside a talent the company values. Fine. I understand loyalty. Hollywood runs on relationships.
But loyalty is not the same thing as judgment.
If you're six months into a CEO role and you're already picking political fights over another studio's casting drama, you're telling the audience something important: you still think the problem is the public. You still think the customer needs correcting. You still think critics are the disease and the studios are the victims.
Hollywood has been making that mistake for years.
This is why so many people don't buy the "it's just about inclusion" line anymore. The audience has heard it too many times, usually right before a box office underperformance, a ratings collapse, or another round of finger-wagging from executives who refuse to admit that modern franchise culture has become allergic to criticism. When viewers object, the industry too often responds by moralizing at them.
That approach isn't brave. It's lazy.
And in this case, it may make The Odyssey backlash even more intense, because now the story is no longer just "people are debating a casting choice." Now it's "Disney's new CEO is attacking the public over it." That broadens the fight. It hardens positions. It guarantees more resentment.
If I were advising these studios, I'd say the same thing I've said for a while: stop treating every backlash like a reeducation opportunity. Let the work defend itself. Let the film stand or fall on its own. And above all, stop assuming the audience is too stupid to know when it's being managed.
Because once people feel managed, they stop listening.
And that's where Hollywood keeps losing.
