When Brie Larson said some incredibly straightforward and sensible things about feminism during the promotional campaign for Captain Marvel, she may as well have waved a red rag at a perpetually insane bull. Said bull is composed of online trolls whose primary motivation in life is campaigning against the ‘SJWification’ of media, usually movies, television or video games. To this end they spent a very long time concocting false stories about Brie Larson and the MCU film she starred in.
Before its release, they said Marvel Studios had already written off Captain Marvel as its first outright flop. That everyone at Marvel personally disliked Brie Larson and wanted to kick her out of the MCU. That she was in a personal rivalry with Chris Hemsworth. That her body language in a press conference proves that she’s trying to “dominate” her male co-stars. That the Russo Brothers were preparing to cut her from Avengers: Endgame due to the inevitable failure of Captain Marvel and that audiences would stay away from her film in droves, because how could anyone possibly want to see a f-f-f-feminist superhero movie?
But then Captain Marvel made $1.12 billion at the box office.
So, with none of their efforts working, they tried a marginally more subtle tactic. Colluding on 4Chan, they decided to launch a fan petition to, in their words, get “Brie Larson to commit to social justice for real.” Or, as the petition itself says:
“We need Brie Larson to step down from her role to prove she is an ally of social justice and ensure a gay woman of color plays the role.”
Now, several outlets are reporting that the petition has crossed the 25K signature mark and hit its goal, and a recent check does indeed reveal that it currently sits at 25,371 signatures, with the new goal having been adjusted to 30,000. How they got that many people to sign such a ridiculous petition is beyond me. But that’s the internet for you.
I imagine we’ll be hearing some concrete details on Captain Marvel 2 at some point in the near future as well, so expect this whole ridiculous merry-go-round to start up again.
