The Marvels director Nia DaCosta recently shared her opinion that critics of woke Marvel are “virulent and violent and racist — and sexist and homophobic.”
DaCosta made her thoughts known during an interview with Variety’s Angelique Jackson ahead of the film’s opening weekend.
The director was first asked if her use of the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” in the film’s trailer was a shot at critics of Brie Larson’s acting.
Jackson explained, “The lyrics, ‘Well, now, don’t you tell me to smile,’ seemed especially pointed, evoking an early scene from the first Captain Marvel where Carol is approached by a smarmy biker who revs his motorcycle engine to get her attention and says, ‘You got a smile for me?’ When Carol doesn’t react, he calls her a ‘freak’ under his breath and heads into a store at an L.A. strip mall. Her revenge: stealing the jerk’s bike.”
DaCosta said the song had nothing to do with Captain Marvel critics, “That’s the first time I’ve realized that those lines are in the song.”
She added, “I cannot say that that was on purpose on my part. Sorry to be disappointing.”
DaCosta then shared her thoughts on critics who lampooned her film and Marvel for “going woke.”
She said, “There are pockets where you go because you’re like, ‘I’m a super fan. I want to exist in the space of just adoration — which includes civilized critique.'”
DaCosta then added, “Then there are pockets that are really virulent and violent and racist — and sexist and homophobic and all those awful things. And I choose the side of the light. That’s the part of fandom I’m most attracted to.”
YouTuber Ryan Kinel reacted to DaCosta’s defamation saying, “Those fans, in large part, it’s people that have legitimate criticisms of where the MCU has been going for the past several years. That’s what we’ve seen. That is exactly what they do time after time.”
He added, “So you can continue to virtue signal people that are critical of your movie with those buzzwords that mean nothing anymore in the grand scheme of things, but the reality is people can see right through this.”
DaCosta’s film bombed at the box office with the worst opening weekend in Marvel Cinematic Universe history. The film only grossed $46.1 million in its opening weekend domestically. It also saw significant declines throughout the weekend. On Friday it grossed $21.6 million. Saturday grosses declined to $15.2 million, a 29% drop. On Sunday it dropped another 39% to $9.2 million.
Not only did the film bomb domestically, but it also bombed internationally only bringing in $62.8 million internationally for a global opening weekend of $108.9 million.
As of writing, the film has only grossed $48.4 million domestically and $62.8 million internationally for a global gross of $111.3 million.
Maybe calling individuals who used to be Marvel fans all kinds of nasty names is not a good marketing strategy long term.
NEXT: ‘The Marvels’ Director Nia DaCosta Brags About Film’s Female Representation Behind The Camera