I learned sometime last year that there was this powerful up and coming black male executive at Disney and that he was (or may have been) the one who was largely behind the real diversity push onscreen overall for the company. I know for certain that he was the one primarily contacting DuVernay about taking on a major motion picture project for the company (there were two options offered her, one of which was A Wrinkle In Time, which DuVernay foolishly chose). This executive also helped bring about David Oyelowo's project to Disney too but I don't know of the timeline for making the film.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...r-disney-musical-moonlight-playwright-1042751
Even though the Luke Cage comic book was never known for being a really fascinating character with great storylines and villains, the show could have been as good and relevant as any of the Netflix slate if it was led by a truly talented showrunner. It had so many great elements that could have worked in its favor and indeed the first three episode of that first season were relatively strong. But it faltered big time after that and never truly regained its footing.
Unlike many people I hated its version of Misty. I could not understand why those folks writing for comic book blogs or doing online comic book shows or TV recaps kept referring to her as a great character and a fan favorite other than the fact that the character was a black woman played by a black actress. People like that tend to Serve The Matriarchy and worship the ground black women work on as if they're some modern media mammies (think Oprah, Beyonce and Michelle). I didn't even care for the performance of the actress because she made Misty come across as some condescending, eye-rolling stereotype. Nonetheless she was getting some MAJOR minutes on the show to the point that in some episodes it seemed as if the show lost track of Luke momentarily and just focused on Misty. And fuckin' Claire. I was left with the impression that the series may have cared more about Misty. Daredevil and Jessica Jones had supporting characters on their respective shows who got a bunch of screen time, but I never felt they were at any time not the focus of the storylines. Same couldn't be said for Luke Cage for a handful of episodes.
As for what black women supported I can't say with 100% accuracy what black women all over the globe were watching and reading, but in my corer of the world I only ran across a handful that was into that stuff, including one of my sisters, a friend of my sis, and a couple of girlfriends. But here's what I do know from my time spent shopping at comic book stores, working at comic book stores, going to and /or working comic book conventions and attending sci fi convention: there were a lot less females than males at these places. A whole lot less. And black women were more scarce than white and Asian women. Of course now I can't go anywhere without reading some rant by some woman about how they have been waiting decades to see more powerful female leads in comic book screen adaptations and science fiction translations and how it is overdue that the industry is finally acknowledging its huge female fanbases, yada, yada, yada. And I think....where were these fanbases when I was growing up or working the comic book/sci fi scene because I never saw them.
What has pissed me off is that over the past 15 years or so (maybe starting with the new Battlestar Galactica) TV sci fi shows have been far more likely to have black women than black men. Sci Fi had been my favorite genre on TV and I was especially a sucker for shows that took place in space. But I've hardly watched any of the new modern ones because they have forgotten black men as a demographic and believe, I suppose, that we would support material if the black representation was female. Fuck. That. Fuck especially the SyFy Channel which has put out one show after another in which a leading character (often the lead female) is a black woman played by some biracial British actress. Meanwhile black guys aren't either around or they are recurring or lower tier supporting characters. It really annoys me so I stopped watching. Thus i have never given a show like "The Expanse" the time of day despite its great reviews. I'm tired of being ignored as a demographic. Meanwhile black women are the most overrated demographic on TV, in all genres in my opinion. When you consider the actual number of black women in America at least, it made me wonder, especially the previous two years, why there was such a disproportionate amount of black actresses being given lead roles for TV pilots. Granted not all of these pilots wee picked up as series, but still.
