Tatiana Maslany, star of Disney+’s Marvel show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, was among Disney veterans who called for fans to cancel their subscriptions to Disney-owned Disney+, Hulu and ESPN after Disney’s ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves at the behest of the Trump Administration.
“Cancel your @disneyplus @hulu @espn subscriptions!” the Canadian actress wrote on Instagram.
She joined many Hollywood insiders who stood up to the company after it “indefinitely” pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday over comments involving murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Damon Lindelof, who co-created ABC’s hit Lost, said on Instagram he would not work with Disney unless Kimmel’s show returns.
“I was shocked, saddened and infuriated by yesterday’s suspension and look forward to it being lifted soon. If it isn’t, I can’t in good conscience work for the company that imposed it,” he wrote Thursday.
The protests, of course, aren’t just about Kimmel, but about the principle that the government shouldn’t be able to censor speech it disagrees with.
Amy Landecker, known for shows including Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, shared an image of the cancellation page from her Disney+ account.
And the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations shared a post that read “Protest Playbook: Save Jimmy Kimmel” that urged fans to cancel Disney+ and leave the message, “I’m canceling because Jimmy Kimmel was removed.” The company also shared an email address for Disney CEO Bob Iger.
“Bottom line: Companies like Disney only respond when there’s economic pressure + bad PR. A loud, organized, visible campaign gives them a reason to reverse course,” Exhibitor Relations wrote.
Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the calls for cancellations, or on whether they have noticed an uptick in cancellations.
The calls to cancel Disney+ follow objections to Kimmel’s suspension by former President Obama, numerous celebrities, and the Hollywood unions SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, among others.
In his monologue Thursday night, Kimmel’s fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert said Kimmel’s suspension was “blatant censorship.”
Colbert himself had his CBS show cancelled — effective at the end of its current season — after he criticized Trump and Paramount, which owns CBS.
Background on Jimmy Kimmel Being Suspended
Brendan Carr, who Trump appointed as chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened on Wednesday that the FCC might take action against Disney-owned ABC, saying on a podcast, “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.”
He also called on ABC’s network affiliates to say, “Listen, we are going to pre-empt, we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out.”
Within hours, Nexstar, which needs FCC approval for a planned $6.2 billion deal to acquire a rival, announced that it would pre-empt Kimmel’s show. Additionally, Sinclair, which also owns ABC affiliate stations, said it would also stop airing Kimmel’s show, and called on Kimmel to apologize and “make a meaningful personal donation” Kirk’s family and his conservtive activist group, Turning Point USA. (Sinclair later said it would air a tribute to Kirk during Kimmel’s timeslot Friday.)
Late Wednesday, ABC announced that it would “indefinitely” pull Kimmel’s show from the airwaves.
President Trump applauded the movie, and called on other networks to cancel their late-night hosts as well.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT” the president wrote on Truth Social.
What Jimmy Kimmel Said About Charlie Kirk
Kimmel is a longtime Trump critic who has often mocked the Republican, including while hosting the 2024 Oscars.
In his opening monologue on Monday night, Kimmel argued that Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk’s murder last week, was affiliated with the pro-Trump MAGA movement.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel’s comment begins at the 1:30 mark in the video above, which you can also see here.
The Daily Mail has reported that Robinson’s grandmother said “most of my family members are Republican.” But CNN reports that prosecutors said Robinson’s mother has “explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left – becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.”
Late-Night Cancel Culture
In July, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a Trump lawsuit. Because the payment came as Paramount sought to seal a $1.5 billion sale — and hoped to avoid federal intervention — Colbert called it “a big fat bribe.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was cancelled days later.
Trump subsequently said on Truth Social that he was not to blame for Colbert’s cancellation.
“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night,” Trump wrote. “That is not true! The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!”
Main image: Tatiana Maslany in a promotional image from She Hulk. Disney+.