Woke Hollywood is dead, or so we thought.
The new trailer for “Ladies First” is proof that La La Land won’t give up the woke ghost.
Sacha Baron Cohen, who traded his subversive “Borat” shtick for the anti-Trump Resistance, stars as a chauvinist who suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in a new reality.
Forget the patriarchy. The matriarchy now runs things in this May 22 Netflix original. The laugh-free trailer is bad enough, but the sight of Borat leaning into feminist clichés is worse.
And it’s far from alone. That “woke mind virus” is on the comeback trail.
Rob Youngson/Netflix – copyright 2026 Netflix, Inc.
The proof that woke was on the run felt substantial. Real. Refreshing. Comedians were suddenly able to speak their minds without fear of reprisal. Comedy roasts made a shocking comeback, and Netflix couldn’t wait to line up rebel comics like Tony Hinchcliffe, Tim Dillon, Ricky Gervais and Shane Gillis for new projects.
Disney, the unofficial woke standard bearer, dialed down the messaging machine. The Disney+ series “Win or Lose” ditched a trans character. Big-budget releases like “Moana 2” and “Inside Out 2” left the lectures on the cutting room floor — and scored huge box office numbers along the way.
More recently, Disney-owned Pixar chief Pete Docter said his company removed LGBTQ content from 2025’s “Elio” because “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”
Lesson learned. Or was it?
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney/Pixar
That “Ladies First” trailer feels like it came from a 2020 time capsule. So does “Starfleet Academy.” The latest “Star Trek” TV show got roundly mocked on social media and by YouTube cutups like Nerdrotic and The Critical Drinker, who combined have millions of followers.
The show featured a charcuterie board full of woke, from the barefoot captain curling up in her chair like a Portland librarian to a gay, cross-dressing Klingon.
Mainstream critics, who lean aggressively to the Left, praised the show while audiences stayed away in droves. The show’s second season was set in motion immediately, but the cancellation news came nearly as fast.
Hulu just dropped a new mini-season of “Malcolm in the Middle,” the early 2000s hit about a quirky, dysfunctional clan. The streamer knew it had a nostalgia-fueled hit on its hands, which may be why the creators gave the clan Kelly, a “non-binary” child.
Just a coincidence? Hardly. Executive producer Tracy Katsy told Deadline.com the reason for the inclusion angle.
“Three out of four of our kids are queer, and without making it a thing and without making an issue, I think it’s really nice to have a character that, that’s just a facet of their personality as opposed to the entire story.”
Theo Wargo/Getty Images
The diversity measure came with the de facto lecture sequence, too, along with the Mary Sue-style characterization.
Kelly uses “they/them” and is depicted as academically gifted, level-headed, and notably the only sibling without a police record.
No flaws, please. That’s another woke byproduct, removing flaws from characters meant to promote diversity and inclusion.
The show also made Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor), who displayed heterosexual characteristics in the original series, a gay man in an interracial relationship.
The new action comedy “Normal” also squeezes a “non-binary” character into the story, played by Jess McLeod. The character, dubbed Alex, is given little backstory or depth, but Alex still plays a sizable role in the film’s second half.
This year’s “Frankenstein” reinvention, dubbed “The Bride!” featured a cavalcade of woke talking points. The titular creature inspired a wave of rebellious women fighting back against early 20th century oppression, and Jessie Buckley’s Bride literally shouts, “Me too” … twice.
And, yes, “The Bride!” may be one of 2026’s biggest box office busts with a pathetic $12 million domestic haul.
Woke isn’t just about forced, clumsy inclusion. It coaxes screenwriters to lecture viewers from a hard-Left perspective. No nuance or balance, please. There’s a PowerPoint-style message to share. It’s why shows like “Matlock” and “The Pitt” have spent serious screen time pushing an aggressive, anti-ICE narrative in recent weeks.
“The Pitt” also promotes an unabashed, pro-abortion agenda. The HBO Max series featured an episode with a 17-year-old pregnant teen (Abby Ryder Fortson) seeking an abortion, but she didn’t have her parents’ consent.
John Wells Productions. Max. R. Scott Gemmill Productions. Sky Studios. Warner Bros. Television. HBO Max.
The baby in question is more than 11 weeks along, just beyond Pennsylvania’s cutoff for a legal abortion. Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) stepped in, offering to fudge the facts to secure the abortion in question. The doctors agreed that the teen deserves to have a life, as they framed it, ignoring the positive impacts of motherhood or potentially giving up the innocent baby for adoption.
The creative team behind “The Pitt” is leaning into the show’s ratings success, weaponizing the saga to advance leftist talking points as needed. It’s another familiar woke pattern — Hollywood finds success with an apolitical show or film, and later leverages that appeal to insert woke talking points.
One glaring example? Even a far-Left site like TheMarySue.com cringed when the once-mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe included a clunky, “girl power” moment during the epic “Avengers: Endgame” battle.
The MCU saga went woke thereafter and has yet to recover, financially speaking.
Despite these stark examples, woke isn’t the cultural force in Hollywood that it was just a few short years ago. Some savvy studio types realized that its cultural tentacles remain a financial risk, to put it bluntly.
Others are like Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who kept fighting World War II for nearly 29 years after hostilities ceased.
That means it could take a few more high-profile failures for Hollywood to finally learn its lesson.
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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.
