If the comments now circulating are accurate, Disney's new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, could not have picked a worse time to make diversity, equity, and inclusion sound like the top priority over storytelling. With The Mandalorian & Grogu already taking heat from critics, longtime Disney defenders, and regular moviegoers, that message hits like gasoline on a fire.
I've watched this pattern for years, and the biggest mistake Disney keeps making is not the original sin. It's the doubling down.
The current backlash around The Mandalorian & Grogu doesn't feel like the usual internet noise. What's different this time is where it's coming from. A lot of the pushback isn't just from the usual anti-Disney crowd. It's coming from people who spent years giving this company the benefit of the doubt. When even those voices start turning, that's when a studio should get honest with itself.
Instead, Disney seems to be reaching for corporate damage control.
A commentary transcript now making the rounds attributes remarks to D'Amaro that frame DEI as Disney's "number one priority" for future Star Wars projects, even above storytelling. If that's an accurate reflection of what was said, then Disney has managed to confirm the exact fear many fans already have: that the company still does not understand why audiences have drifted away.
And let's be clear about something. The problem with The Mandalorian & Grogu, at least from what many critics and viewers are saying, is not mainly that audiences are scanning every frame for politics. The bigger complaint is simpler and more devastating: the movie doesn't feel like a movie.
That's the part Disney should be worried about.
For a franchise returning to theaters after years away, this was supposed to feel like an event. Instead, a lot of the reaction describes it as stitched-together streaming material, something closer to a few TV episodes fused into one feature. That's a brutal thing for a Star Wars film to be accused of, especially after such a long theatrical gap. Bland is survivable in a random streaming release. Bland is deadly when you're asking fans to believe the big-screen future of the franchise still matters.
So when a CEO appears to answer that kind of criticism by saying the real mission is DEI, and by implying the backlash is unfair, politically driven, or rooted in bad-faith narratives, he's missing the central issue. Fans don't want a lecture about the company's values framework when the actual product feels thin, weightless, and strangely small.
I think that's what makes this moment so damaging. It's not just that Disney may be saying the wrong thing. It's that the wrong thing is being said while the studio is trying to sell confidence in a Star Wars comeback that clearly has not gone to plan.
The old Disney playbook used to work. Deflect. Reframe. Suggest the critics are out of step. But that only works when the audience still trusts you. Right now, that trust looks badly eroded.
If Disney wants to calm the backlash, the answer is not another round of executive spin. It is not accusing the public of misunderstanding the mission. And it is definitely not telling fans that "priority number one" is something other than great characters, real stakes, and a story worth showing up for.
That's what Star Wars used to sell.
Now Disney seems to be selling the excuse.
