The star of the latest Disney+ movie said recently it’s time for the family-focused entertainment company to cast transgender princes and princesses.
During an interview with Times of India, Margaret Cho — who portrays an LGBT guidance counselor in the Disney Channel movie “Prom Pact” — described her part in the film as “a queer character … who’s somebody that the kids look up to, which I think is really amazing.”
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Cho, 54, went on to say it’s “absolutely” time for a lead LGBT character in a Disney movie.
“I would love to see them everywhere,” she explained. “I would love to see trans characters and different types of people in roles of, like, Disney princess, Disney prince, and Disney everything.”
The celebrity continued, “I think this would be really important, and it’s a move towards the future. It’s a move towards who we are. I think it’s really admirable and really exciting.”
The film in which Cho stars originally premiered on the Disney Channel March 30 and then went to Disney+, where a longer version of the movie “with some more explicit dialogue” was released, according to IMDb.
Her comments come not long after The Walt Disney Company released the animated film “Strange World” in theaters. The movie, intended to reach families with young children, was a failure at the box office, earning just $25.7 million domestically with an estimated budget somewhere between $130 and $180 million. The movie reportedly lost around $100 million in its theatrical run, Variety reported.
“Strange World” is full of political and moral storylines many deemed problematic for children, including a plot centering on a same-sex couple and a conflict serving as a metaphor for climate change.
The film’s poor performance at the box office came not long after Disney released its “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear,” featuring a same-sex kiss between two female characters. That film just barely broke even, earning $226 million globally on a $200 million budget, according to Digital Spy.
Last spring, Karey Burke, president of general entertainment and Disney, said during an internal summit that she would like to see “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters” in Disney films and TV shows. She added she wants to incorporate more LGBT-identified characters into Disney content more broadly.
All of this comes as more than 10,000 concerned parents, grandparents, and other likeminded adults have signed a petition urging The Walt Disney Company to remove sexually charged content from its Disney+ streaming platform.
Those who signed the petition, led by the Parents Television and Media Counsel, are urging Disney to “return to producing uplifting, clean, inspiring content that families can trust.”
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