Moon Woman and Satan Dinosaur Episode Allegedly Scrubbed Over Trans Storyline

One of many remaining episodes of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur set to launch in 2025 will now allegedly not make it to air, based on since-deleted feedback on social media from crew who labored on the Marvel and Disney animated sequence, claiming issues over the creating political local weather within the U.S. within the wake of the 2024 presidential election.

The remaining episodes of Moon Woman‘s second and last season had been set to air on the Disney Channel someday in 2025, however now no less than one episode produced for the Marvel sequence—adapting the titular young comics heroine, aka Luna Lafayette, and her adventures alongside the enormous T-Rex-esque creature Satan Dinosaur—might not make it to air, supposedly because of revolving round a plotline involving the subject of trans youngsters concerned in class sports activities.

“One of many tasks (episode) I labored on is getting shelved due to which occasion that gained the latest election,” Derrick Malik Johnson, a storyboard artist who labored on Moon Woman and Satan Dinosaur stated in a latest, since-deleted post on the social media platform Bluesky. “It breaks my coronary heart figuring out this impactful and superb [episode] is now about to be contemplate a misplaced media episode.”

In a thread on the Moon Girl subreddit about Johnson’s publish, somebody claiming to have labored on the sequence alleged that the episode revolved across the character Brooklyn, a teen volleyball participant who attends Luna’s faculty within the sequence. “If you happen to put consideration [sic] to particulars in regards to the character, you possibly can determine about what theme [the episode was based on] and why it was canned,” the person wrote in a now-deleted comment thread.

io9 was not capable of independently confirm the veracity of the above posts on Bluesky and Reddit, however when reached out for remark, a Disney supply aware of the matter confirmed that whereas the episode had been pulled from launch, the choice was revamped a 12 months in the past, and unrelated to issues over the present political local weather.

The supply additional described the rationale for the episode’s cancelation–particular to the episode itself, fairly than Brooklyn as a personality, who has appeared elsewhere in Moon Woman–as a part of a daily evaluate course of the corporate makes with all of its youngsters content material, with the intent to make sure materials doesn’t doubtlessly push forward discussions round social points earlier than households can have them themselves.

“The Gatekeeper” leaked on-line this week in varied kinds, with some sources already pulled by means of copyright claims from Disney. Footage from the episode, first reported on by Polygon, sees Brooklyn and her volleyball teammates within the Squirrels making ready for a regional championships match towards one other faculty.

In footage from the episode seen by io9, Brooklyn discusses her historical past of previously being pressured to play on the boys’ volleyball crew, which is overheard by the coach for the rival crew, Greer. The opposing coach then pushes to disqualify Brooklyn from play whereas interrogating {the teenager} for her Satisfaction flag-themed kneepads and for having a water bottle that has a trans flag sticker on it.

After the Squirrels’ personal coach defends Brooklyn’s place on the crew,, in additional footage from the episode seen by io9, Greer makes use of a magical key to lock Brooklyn, Luna (performing because the crew’s water lady), and the remainder of the Squirrels in a facsimile of their locker room enjoying escape room trials in an try to power a disqualification by means of non-participation. This results in Luna’s finest good friend Casey looking for Satan Dinosaur’s assist to purchase time and save the day.

The episode is clearly not delicate about both centering a trans teen character in Brooklyn, or the express prejudice she faces as a trans teen who needs to take part in class sports activities.  “It’s like creepy hologram Greer stated, ‘to get out, you have to observe my guidelines,’” Brooklyn says at one level within the episode after she, Luna, and the crew fail to flee the locker room. “I’m trans. My very existence breaks Greer’s guidelines… what number of doorways? What number of doorways do I’ve to interrupt by means of earlier than they cease locking me out?”

Though conservative politicians have spent a number of years pushing again towards the inclusion of trans athletes in purported “girls’s areas,” particularly in class sports activities, anti-trans rhetoric was ramped up within the closing months of the latest U.S. presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, with the Republican occasion spending an estimated $215 million on marketing campaign TV commercials concentrating on trans points throughout the election. For Disney to air an episode of a sequence in protection of trans youth athletes would put the corporate instantly within the highlight simply as Trump prepares to return to the White Home for a second time period, so its purported scrubbing would come as no shock, particularly given Disney’s history round LGBTQ commentary in its varied studios’ tasks.

In 2022, Disney was infamously on the coronary heart of discussions round Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill, after going through inner dissent for a lack of vocal support by the corporate to face as much as the invoice’s plans to manage dialogue of LGBTQ subjects in Florida colleges. On the time, Disney was within the strategy of shifting a number of of its operations into Florida, the place it additionally gives a serious enhance to the native economic system by means of the operation of Walt Disney World.

Staff at Pixar additional alleged that Disney had explicitly diminished LGBTQ characters and plotlines in its materials “right down to crumbs” after company evaluate in an open letter released in March 2022.

After a series of legal disputes with DeSantis’ administration, and formally deciding to come out against the legislation, Disney finally buried the hatchet earlier this 12 months, negotiating as much as $17 billion in future investment into growth of Walt Disney World.

It might not be the primary time Disney has capitulated to right-wing methods of energy by censoring its personal materials, and sure gained’t be the final. AdWeek reported at present that Disney was one among a number of main firms who had begun returning to spending promoting on X, having paused late final 12 months over issues with the platform’s then-new proprietor, Elon Musk. Musk has commonly used his prominence on the platform to uplift anti-trans commentary and express his own anti-trans beliefs. He’ll play a serious function within the incoming Trump administration; the President-Elect introduced earlier this week that Musk will co-chair a brand new “Department of Government Efficiency” aimed toward chopping waste within the federal authorities.

Replace 11/15 5.25pm: This text has been up to date to incorporate commentary from a Disney supply.

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