No, Disney Isn’t Selling Star Wars and Other Fact-Checks
Lately, a few trash pandas have operated a misinformation campaign against The Walt Disney Company.
Why is someone targeting Mickey Mouse? I dunno, and it’s weird. Some people hate pure joy, I guess.
Over the past few days, the nonsense has grown unbearable. So, let’s do a quick Disney fact-check on some (utterly absurd) rumors.
Is Disney Selling Star Wars? NO!
Here’s the reason why this article exists. For whatever reason, people are buying into the world’s dumbest rumor.
One of those lousy anti-Disney YouTube sites posted a rumor that’s laughable on its face.
The report suggested that Disney wanted to sell Star Wars but would have to take a loss, presumably because nobody wants it.
That’s so wrong it makes my teeth hurt.
First, Disney had already turned a profit on its modest $4 billion Star Wars investment by the time Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi exited theaters.
The company earned a fortune at the box office from its first few Star Wars movies, and that’s before we factor in merchandise.
As anyone in the industry knows, that’s where the real money comes into play, especially for Disney.
Before the company owned Star Wars, the Lucasfilm franchise stood apart as the most popular license that wasn’t a part of Disney.
Now, Disney claims that one as well. All the Lego sets, Funko POP!s, t-shirts, and Baby Yoda toys are pure profit for Disney at this point.
Why would Disney sell that license unless it gained a massive amount of money in the deal?
The thought that Disney would sell for less is that much dumber in that the company has grown the Star Wars brand.
Yes, we’ve tracked a few missteps along the way, but that’s just the cost of doing business in Hollywood.
Disney recently announced the release date for Ahsoka, and it has several other Star Wars programs in progress, most notably new seasons of Andor and The Mandalorian.
A trio of new films are in production as well. There’s an obvious inference here, and other business writers realize that as well.
Does Disney Own Land in Texas?
I’m addressing this one because it’s come up a few times recently when I’ve read the comments on some MickeyBlog articles.
While I know the internet joke is that nobody should ever read the comments, I quite appreciate it when our readers add their thoughts.
However, at least three times over the past year, I’ve noticed people mentioning the idea that Disney will leave Florida for Texas.
The tenets of this theory center on the Florida Feud and the fact that Disney owns land in Texas.
First, I’ll point out that if Disney wants to escape the red state politics of Florida, Texas isn’t the destination of choice. It’s, if anything, redder.
Second, nobody can point to an official real estate transaction that indicates a Disney presence in Texas.
The rumors often suggest that Disney owns 9,000 acres in a region between Salado and Jarrell.
These two cities reside in the middle of the state, and neither one even incorporated until the 21st century.
So, I’m confident that land would be cheap if Disney had bought it. But Disney didn’t do that.
As near as I can tell, this rumor started as satire, and it wasn’t even about Walt Disney World.
Instead, someone made up the story while Disneyland Resort was feuding with Anaheim’s City Council in 2018.
Since then, the fake details have evolved to apply to Walt Disney World instead.
Still, the facts remain. As a publicly traded company, Disney typically lists its land transactions to inform its investors.
No records exist of a significant land purchase in Texas.
Did Disney Apologize to Johnny Depp and Is He Returning?
No. And Maybe.
A couple of years ago, one of these weird misinformation sites posted that Disney had afforded a total apology to Johnny Depp.
Other sites ran with this story, knowing it would draw headlines and entice clicks. None of them cared that the report wasn’t based in fact.
In fact, I debunked part of it last year in a Disney Headlines piece. During the Depp/Amber Heard court battle, the actor testified.
As part of his comments, Depp claimed that even if Disney offered “$300 million dollars and a million alpacas,” he wouldn’t work for the studio again.
The misinformation campaign later evolved to Disney giving Disney $300 million (but zero alpacas) and a formal letter of apology.
Importantly, Depp emerged victorious in that lawsuit. Since then, Disney has at least cracked the door on his return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
During a recent New York Times article, Sean Bailey, a President in Disney film production, said he was “Noncommittal at this point” about Depp’s return.
The author of that interview described the response as “seemingly inching the door open.”
Since Depp proved that his ex-wife was lying about him in court, he’s no longer quite so problematic, although some will continue to eye him suspiciously.
So, right now, we really have no idea whether Disney would try to bring him back to the franchise.
Presumably, Depp would have to drop his asking price from (more than) $300 million and a million alpacas, though.
Did Walt Disney Leave Money to the First Pregnant Man?
WHAT?!
How would that even work? Walt Disney died in 1966. I’m writing this in 2023. Was there a pregnant man story that I missed?
No, that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Junior, doesn’t count. And nobody but me remembers it anyway.
Despite all this, a pervasive rumor persists on the internet that Walt Disney was so liberal that he left something significant in his will.
According to the rumor, Disney bequeathed his entire company, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, to whomever met an odd condition of the will.
All someone needed to do to collect was to become pregnant as a man.
All this is so stupid that I’m not even sure how to start. I guess we’ll go with the fact that Walt Disney was a staunch Republican while alive.
Sure, you could argue that his political beliefs would make him a middle-of-the-road voter today, someone who felt neither party fully reflected his beliefs.
Even then, someone would need to explain to me the thought process behind the idea.
Why would someone with two daughters will their life’s work to someone they didn’t even know, as long as that person were a pregnant male?
What’s the context here? And do the rumormongers understand how a publicly traded company works?
The instant Disney switched from being a private to public corporation, the will conditions could no longer be met…because Uncle Walt no longer had that power.
A friend of mine once assailed an especially gullible person by asking them, “How have you not been kidnapped by elves?”
That’s the kind of naivete someone must possess to believe this particular rumor.
Did Disney Buy Pornhub?
No.
Also, I genuinely worry about anyone who believes these last two rumors.
COME ON, PEOPLE!
To a larger point, this rumor exemplifies why you shouldn’t believe anything you read on the internet without fact-checking it first.
A Q’anon site posted a Facebook entry that stated the following:
“DID YOU KNOW #DISNEY OWNS #PORNHUB? Why is this not public knowledge? Disney executives pleased to announce acquisition of PornHub.”
Literally none of that is true. And the site posting it knew that. They posted it anyway.
We shouldn’t be surprised when proven liars post easily disprovable lies. But here we are…
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