Disney pulled a transgender storyline from “Win or Lose,” an eight-episode Pixar streaming series that debuts in February, the company said Tuesday.
“When it comes to animated content for a younger audience,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement, “we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”
The transgender character will remain in the show, but references to the character’s gender identity have been removed, the company said. The alteration involves “just a few lines of dialogue” near the end of the season.
“Win or Lose” centers on a co-ed middle school softball team in the lead-up to a big game, with each episode focusing on a different character’s perspective. The animated series features the voices of “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Will Forte and “Fresh Off the Boat” actor Ian Chen.
The storyline alteration drew criticism from Chanel Stewart, an 18-year-old transgender actor who voiced the transgender character.
“I was very disheartened,” Stewart told Deadline, an entertainment news website. Stewart told the publication that Disney called her mother Monday night to let her know about the change.
“From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth,” Stewart said. “I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger has said he wants the company to move away from themes that could be perceived as political. “Infusing messaging is not what we’re up to,” Iger said in an interview with CNBC in early April. “We need to be entertaining.”
In recent years, Disney has sometimes found itself at the center of wider American culture wars, most notably under the tenure of Iger’s short-lived predecessor, Bob Chapek.
Chapek was criticized by employees in 2022 after appearing to remain silent on what critics called Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation limiting classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues, then faulted by conservatives when he ultimately publicly opposed the bill.
The same year, conservative activists assailed Disney for including LGBTQ characters in two animated family films: Pixar’s “Lightyear” depicted a brief same-sex kiss, and Disney Animation’s “Strange World” revolved partly around a gay teenager.
Disney has continued to feature LGBTQ characters and themes in content made for adults, including the Searchlight Pictures films “All of Us Strangers” and “Fire Island” as well as the FX series “Pose,” which ended in 2021.
The decision about the “Win or Lose” storyline was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The show was co-created by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, who worked on previous Pixar projects like “Toy Story 4” and “Inside Out 2.”
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