The fallout from ABC’s decision to sideline Jimmy Kimmel Live! is still spreading, and two more MCU stars have weighed into the subject. While She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany recently called on subscribers to cancel their Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN accounts, two stars with prominent roles in the MCU’s upcoming movies have now berated Disney over their handling of Kimmel’s suspension.
First came Mark Ruffalo, who took a shot at Disney and their declining stock prices in the days since Kimmel’s show was taken off-air. On his Threads account, the Hulk actor, who is expected to appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars, aimed his comments at the Disney boardroom as Disney share prices dropped by 7%, and warned them, “It’s going to go down a lot further if they cancel his show. Disney does not want to be the ones that broke America.” (Disney’s stock did begin to rebound later in the day, but remained down overall).
Also airing support for Kimmel was The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Star Wars’ The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal, who also took to his social media account to share an image of himself on Kimmel’s talk show, captioned simply, “Standing with you. Defend #FreeSpeech Defend #DEMOCRACY.”
Naturally, both statements drew plenty of support and an equal amount of derision. The one thing that has become increasingly clear in the last several days is that if anyone believed this is something that was going to blow over quickly, then they could not be more wrong. However, with the stars of some of Disney’s biggest properties not holding back in publicly criticizing the House of Mouse, tensions are soon going to reach a level when something has to give.
Conan O’ Brien Slammed Disney’s Decision to Suspend Kimmel as “Disturbing”
Many more celebrities have shared their worries and outrage over Kimmel being pulled off-air for making a joke that was quite benign compared to some of the outright hateful comments that have been shared on social media since the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Among them was former talk show host Conan O’Brien, who said everyone should be very worried about the precedent being set by Disney’s action and the reported pressure put on ABC by the FCC to act against Kimmel or suffer consequences. O’Brien wrote:
“The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and the promise to silence other late-night hosts for criticizing the administration should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center. It’s wrong and anyone with a conscience knows it’s wrong.”
Kimmel was reportedly set to meet with Disney executives to discuss his future on ABC, but it has been suggested that the late-night star is not in the mood to take any more aggravation from ABC’s parent company and is looking to end his contract early. While the future of Kimmel’s show will likely be decided in the coming days, the aftershocks are going to roll on for some time to come.
- Release Date
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January 26, 2003
- Network
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ABC
