‘Strange World’, the new Disney movie, will have an openly gay main character

The absurd controversy that the LGBTQ+ character of ‘Lightyear’ has raised does not seem to be going to scare Disney, who intend to continue taking small steps towards films in which the whole world can see ourselves reflected. Next November, ‘Mundo Extraño’, the new feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, will hit theaters. The film directed by Don Hall is starring a family of explorers, and in it we will find the first openly gay main character in an animated mouse house movie.

From Annecy, France, where the largest animated film festival is held, we get the information that Ethan Clade, son of the protagonist, will be openly gay and, as production designer Matthieu Saghezchi describes in his Twitter, will live an “openly gay romance” with another boy, named Diazo. Saghezchi, who was at the Disney presentation at the festival, explains that Ethan gets very nervous in front of the boy he likes. Then his father shows up and introduces himself to his son’s crush, saying that “he won’t stop talking about him”, making Ethan much more nervous than before.

Ethan Clade will be voiced in the original version by Jaboukie Young-White and his father, Searcher Clade, will be voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal.. It was recently confirmed that the voice cast will also include Gabrielle Union, Lucy Liu and Dennis Quaid.

After the crisis that The Walt Disney Company did not condemn Florida’s homophobic law known as ‘Don’t Say Gay’, and after giving the LGTBQ+ community crumbs in the form of “exclusively gay moments” that countries more conservative could eliminate without much problem, the company wants to show that they are on the side of diversity. They recently refused to allow the LGBTQ+ plotlines of ‘Eternals’ and ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ to be censored, as well as Alisha Hawthorne’s family history in ‘Lightyear’, despite the fact that Disney had already censored it previously to later restore it due to pressure from Pixar and public opinion. In the case of ‘Lightyear’, it has been banned in fourteen countries. But, as Chris Evans recently said, “There will always be people who are afraid and try to hold on to what came before. Those people will become extinct like the dinosaurs. The goal is to ignore them, walk forward and embrace the growth that makes us human”.

The spirit of Jules Verne and HG Wells

In the presentation, Disney described “Weird World” as an adventure inspired by those of Jules Verne or HG Wells. The film focuses on three generations of a family of explorers who end up on a planet full of mystery. It will hit theaters on November 23.