Brie Larson vs The World
Written by The Irked Jerk 22/01/2025
Brie Larson been taking the blame for things she hasn't even done
My dad is 70 years old and has been a loyal fan of DC comics characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman since longer than he can recall. In his retirement, he has more time to spend surfing YouTube and discovering new things about the world.
The only problem is that he's discovered the dark, shameful corner of inflammatory anti-woke, misogynist media. He asked me if a particular claim about Brie Larson was true and, with a cursory Google Search, I found it to hold no water, but he didn't believe me.
I told him that some YouTube channels are designed to stoke the fires of outrage in people so they can farm your views and he said that this wasn't the case.
So I've decided to do a deeper dive into this and find out if Brie Larson is just an unfortunate casualty in the fight between woke and anti-wokeism.
CLAIM: BRIE LARSON IS STRONG-ARMING JAMES GUNN INTO GENDER SWAPPNG DC HEROES
Of course, just by glancing at this, you can dismiss this as an absurd statement. Why would Brie Larson have any say in what James Gunn does? James Gunn has no relationship with her besides the six degrees of separation between Captain Marvel and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Even though it makes no sense whatsoever, these channels view her as the head of the woke agenda and ultimately use her as a scapegoat.
Look at how these channels take advantage of the undue vitriol towards her.
HER INITIAL CRIME
Now, the hate for Brie Larson stems from the utter falsehood that she hates CIS white males. Here is a link to the full speech from 2018 that put Brie Larson in the target of these rage-farmers. Brie Larson Receives 2018 Women In Film Crystal Award
"Am I saying I hate white dudes? No, I'm not. What I'm saying is '[if] you make a movie that is a love letter
to women of colour, there is an insanely low chance that a woman of colour will get a chance to see your
movie and review your movie.'"
- Brie Larson, 2018
She exclaims several times in her speech to NOT TO TAKE HER WORDS THE WRONG WAY! She doesn't hate "white dudes", she simply wants us to be more conscious of our biases. It's not about taking white men down, it's about lifting minorities up. Here's the supposed contentious part:
"We are expanding to make films that better reflect the people that buy movie tickets, but they are not
allowed enough chances to read public discourse on these films by the people these films were made for.
I do not need a forty-year-old white dude to tell me what didn't work for him about A Wrinkle In Time -
it wasn't made for him. I wanna know what that film meant to women of colour, to bi-racial women, to
teen women of colour, to teens that are bi-racial. And, for the third time, I don't hate white dudes."
- Brie Larson, 2018
I honestly don't see what is so abominable about her words! She's not being sexist or racist towards white men. Every piece of media has a target demographic and she wants to hear from that demographic.
For those concerned that she wants jobs taken away from white men, relax. Her proposed solution to this disparity is to add more under-represented people to the critic pools - not to cut out the people who are already there. She asks they be given a seat at the table as people of colour still have a tendency to be denied access to press events.
So what's the big deal?
NOW, TO DISMANTLE THE CLAIM
I am going to go through a lot of these videos and dissect them. If there is anything that I find useful, I will post it here. I will not be biased. If there is any truth to these claims, I will post it here.
The first video I will go through is The British Brothers' YouTube video: Brie Larson Lashes Out at James Gunn for New Green Lantern Casting
Stats as of 22/01/2025 according to Social Blade
EARNINGS:
$156 - $2.5K monthly
SUBS IN LAST 30 DAYS
1K
VIEWS IN LAST 30 DAYS
624,398
VIEWS TODAY
8909
SUBSCRIBERS
11K
VIDEOS
114
CHANNEL AGE
~7 months
BRIE LARSON CONTENT
2 videos dedicated to Brie. 5 fewer than videos dedicated to Tatiana Maslany.
I want to note the use of their language. "Reportedly", "Supposedly", "Apparently", "Allegedly". Nothing concrete. Does he cite any sources? We'll see.
"DC Expanded Universe" is not the term they are using. The term is DCU as per James Gunn. [1]
"She's supposedly gunning for a spot in the new DC Expanded Universe." Unfounded
"...apparently wants a gender-swapped Green Lantern." Unfounded
"Brie and her band of Woke Warriors, She-Hulk actress Tatiana Maslany included, are allegedly trying to convince Warner Bros. to throw yet another iconic male superhero under the bus." Unfounded. As far as I can see, there is no connection between Larson and Maslany, nor between either of them and Warner Bros. At least not in the past year.
"If Brie Larson's not getting her way and there's no gender-bending going on, she's mad." Unfounded. She has never mentioned gender-bending. However, the character of Dar-Benn in The Marvels (2023) is a gender-bent character. There is no evidence that Larson had any say in that decision. But you know who has participated in gender-bending? James Gunn, your anti-woke champion, with Cosmo the Space Dog. [2] [3]
"She wants everyone to know she's furious, and trust me, you'll feel her wrath." Unfounded. If this is true, why is there no reputable source conveying these news? Where are the video clips of her throwing a tantrum?
"James Gunn isn't playing along with her woke agenda." Does not follow. There is no evidence of contact between Larson and Gunn so what would he have to play along with?
The British Brothers have finally posted a screenshot (of just a headline) for a 2023 article from Cosmic Book News. [4] The article in question, written by Matt McGloin refers to Jeff Sneider's InSneider. It's difficult to ascertain the legitimacy of Sneider's claims. However, there is a distinct anti-woke slant to McGloin's article. "KC Walsh who uses pronouns..." is clearly a jab at the 'woke' use of pronouns. McGloin, you use pronouns, too! I, he, she, you, me, we, us, they, them, it, are all pronouns!
McGloin refers to an interview taken out of context such as a Jimmy Kimmel interview [5] to claim that Larson hated her fellow cast members. She talks about being very close to Samuel L Jackson and having knowledge that only the other knows about them, like Fury and Capt. Marvel in the film - including who they hate. She says they've done three movies together, and there's a lot of people to hate there. There is no implicit or explicit mention of the cast."She's going after James Gunn because she thinks he's sexist." Unfounded
"She's asking why he's only casting men for his upcoming projects." Unfounded. There have been several women cast in Gunn's DCU projects and Larson has never commented on them.
"Just look at how her woke push back has tanked the MCU." Unfounded. The MCU is struggling due to inconsistent quality, not because of wokeism. Despite its recent missteps, the MCU has brought Disney around $31.06 billion USD, where as the DCEU (Snyder's DC) has only brought in $7.14 billion USD. [6]
The British Brothers have referenced an article from ComicBook.com [7] to suggest that Feige thinks the "Woke phase 4 characters were an epic failure". In reality, the article states that not all Phase 4 characters will be in the Avengers movies because there isn't enough room. Comicbook.com's unnamed source reportedly told them as many as 60 characters could be in the film.
The British Brothers quote Kevin Feige, "We tried it, it didn't work." Tenuous. It's not been confirmed that this is true. This is a rumour coming from Chris Gore on the Critical Drinker's podcast [8]. Critical Drinker is also notoriously anti-woke and so are many of his guests . This aforementioned quote is a paraphrasal of Feige's supposed attitude by Gore. Even Critical Drinker was skeptical of this, "How did we not hear about this, though?" Good question! Why aren't reputable news sources chomping at the bit to put these buzzwords in their headlines?
In the same interview, Gore said "You will never get anything good out of Lucasfilm and Star Wars", but then we got Skeleton Crew."Here come Brie and Tatiana crying sexism because it's not a woman." Unfounded
"Apparently, they're throwing tantrums behind the scenes, desperate to get themselves back in the spotlight after their Disney flops." Unfounded
"Male and pale is stale." Tenuous. The only articles I could find refer to the quotes from Chris Gore on the Critical Drinker podcast.
Deadpool & Wolverine brought in $1.3 billion USD because it had a great story with good characters regardless of gender. True. But it's more likely because it features the return of a beloved character who has had over 20 years of development - a character who was killed off in 2017, and whose actor was retired from the character. Deadpool himself has a strong fan-base, enough to earn him a third outing. Combine the two and you have a recipe for a billion dollar tentpole. There have been a few detractors who have come forward and claimed that this was the only thing going for the film. [9]
"No more Captain Marvel movies, no more She-Hulk seasons." Unfounded. That remains to be seen.
"She's reportedly furious she's not on the roster for any upcoming Avengers films and now she's dragging James Gunn into her meltdown." Unfounded
"Behind the scenes, Brie and Tatiana are still trying to convince Gunn to bring their woke agenda into the DC Expanded [sic] Universe but he's not buying it," Unfounded
"Fans really want no forced diversity." True. But we do want diversity in races [10] and the number of BIPOC people is steadily increasing. [11]
"[Fans want] no gender swaps for the sake of it." True. But we do want more diversity in sexes [10] and the number of women in film is steadily increasing, in fact, women seem to have overtaken men as film leads. [11]
"Solid stories and characters people can actually care about." True. But a lot of people do care about Captain Marvel and She-Hulk. There is no forced diversity in race or sexes there. These are established comic-book characters and they are simply being brought to the big and small screen respectively. These projects, Miss Marvel, The Marvels, Agatha All Along, were all lambasted by the anti-woke crowd even before they were released. Those people never had any intention on giving the project a chance. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
ALL THAT FOR A 5 MINUTE VIDEO?
That took a surprisingly long time to go through, I don't know if I have the energy to do another video today. Each sentence was basically an unfounded claim. There were some things that were technically true, and some tenuous rumours that could possibly be true but can't be confirmed. But most of it was unfounded inflammatory drivel. There is too much incentive to leech off of Larson's disproportionate notoriety, it's just good capitalism. But these rage-bait YouTubers are treating humans like animals - Larson and their own audiences - and you're allowing yourself to be farmed.
I believe I have presented enough for now to vindicate Larson who, from every interview I've seen has been nothing but delightful and congenial. If he ever comes by it, hopefully this article will be convincing enough to get my dad out of the echo chamber of anti-wokeism. I'm not saying he needs to go for woke, I'd just like for him to make informed decisions. Because if it's happening to my dad, I'm sure it's happening to many elderly people out there!
Sources
Chapter 1 - Gods and Monsters | DC Studios | DC | via YouTube
https://youtu.be/wY8XcmrIujE?si=-MPcON8zuow74V6hCosmo The Spacedog | via Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmo_the_Spacedog#Marvel_Cinematic_UniverseJames Gunn Tweet regarding Cosmo's gender-swap | via Twitter
https://x.com/JamesGunn/status/1657874525089046529Scoopers Defend Brie Larson: Sexist, Racist, Right Wingers, Incels To Blame | via Cosmic Book News
https://cosmicbook.news/scoopers-defend-brie-larson-sexist-racist-right-wingers-incelsBrie Larson on Becoming Captain Marvel | via YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwRg7L8oh9IHighest-grossing movie franchises and series worldwide as of January 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars) | via Statista
https://www.statista.com/statistics/317408/highest-grossing-film-franchises-series/#:~:text=As%20of%20January%202025%2C%20the,of%2031.06%20billion%20U.S.%20dollarsMarvel Boss Kevin Feige Says Next Avengers Movies Will Leave Out Some Phase 4 Characters | via Comicbook.com
https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/marvel-boss-kevin-feige-says-avengers-5-will-leave-out-some-phase-4-characters/Drinker's Chasers - Major Course Correction At Marvel? | via YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJpo_Q1fAIA&t=552s&ab_channel=CriticalDrinkerAfterHoursDeadpool and Wolverine isn’t just a bad movie – it’s changing the definition of what a ‘movie’ is | via Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/deadpool-and-wolverine-marvel-ryan-reynolds-b2587734.htmlAudiences Prefer Films With Diverse Casts, According to UCLA Study | via Variety
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/audiences-prefer-diverse-content-ucla-study-1234957493/Hollywood Diversity Report 2024 - Featuring Film | via UCLA
https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2024-Film-Streaming-5-23-2024.pdfA Change for Rotten Tomatoes Ahead of Captain Marvel | via The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/rotten-tomatoes-captain-marvel-review-ratings-system-online-trolls/584032/'She-Hulk' Is Getting Review-Bombed Even Harder Than 'Miss Marvel' | via Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/18/she-hulk-is-getting-review-bombed-even-harder-than-ms-marvel/‘Ms. Marvel’ Review-Bombed Into Being The MCU’s Lowest-Scoring Show On IMDB | via Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/06/09/ms-marvel-review-bombed-into-being-the-mcus-lowest-scoring-show-on-imdb/Critics love Marvel’s new TV show, so what’s with all the one-star reviews on IMDB? | via Sydney Morning Herald
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/critics-love-marvel-s-new-tv-show-so-what-s-with-all-the-one-star-reviews-on-imdb-20220609-p5asg3.html'Ms. Marvel' deserves so much better than petty, hateful review bombs and everyone needs to grow up | via USA Today
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/06/ms-marvel-review-bomb-mcu-disney-plus‘The Marvels’ Faces Anti-‘Woke’ Backlash After Box Office Flop—Echoing ‘Captain Marvel’ Attacks | via Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/11/13/the-marvels-faces-anti-woke-backlash-after-box-office-flop-echoing-captain-marvel-attacks/Marvel's Agatha All Along Gets Review-Bombed on IMDB | via The Direct
https://thedirect.com/article/marvel-studios-agatha-all-along-review-bombed-2024-show