![]() Still, Cate Shortland’s Black Widow, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984, Chloé Zhao’s Eternals and Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey (which, sadly, bombed just before Covid) mostly didn’t get the red carpet treatment they deserved. ![]() 2020 was supposed to be the year with four big DC/MCU movies all helmed by female directors and starring female protagonists. The reason most/many of the movies that ended up on streaming platforms or ended up in theaters during this weird summer were “not-a-white-guy” flicks is because that’s what Hollywood was offering before the pandemic. That same day, Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman 1984 (the most expensive, by default, movie ever made by a solo female director) was burdened with testing how an otherwise surefire blockbuster sequel would play as a theater/HBO Max combo release. Moreover, on Christmas Day, Soul (Pixar’s first flick with a Black lead) was tasked with seeing how a Pixar toon would play as a Disney+ exclusive. On that same Labor Day weekend, Niki Caro’s Mulan (starring an entirely Asian cast) being the first biggie to go the Disney+ Premier Access route. Last year, Chris Nolan’s Tenet (starring John David Washington as a James Bond-ish action hero lead in a $200 million movie that didn’t “require” a Black protagonist) was tasked with making theaters safe for blockbusters. That’s a pattern that has been in play since the start, or at least since Tenet. ![]() Conversely, the likes of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, Spider-Man: No Way Home were moved outside of the summer season when it was presumed conditions would improve. This summer movie season was almost entirely fronted by films featuring the same demographics that Hollywood liked to argue were proverbial box office poison. Quick: What do Spiral, A Quiet Place 2, Cruella, In the Heights, F9, The Forever Purge, Zola, Black Widow, Old, Snake Eyes, Space Jam 2, Jungle Cruise, The Green Knight, The Suicide Squad, Respect, The Protégé, Candyman and Shang-Chi have in common? They are “big” summer movies fronted by “not a white guy” leads. Niki Caro's 'Mulan' and Chris Nolan's 'Tenet' Walt Disney and Warner Bros.
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