Pixar’s Upcoming Disney+ Show Win or Lose Removed a Transgender Storyline [UPDATED]
Pixar’s next TV show has already answered its own question. It’s called Win or Lose and, apparently, the company is going with the second one. The show was set to feature a potential transgender character but has since removed references to the character’s gender.
“When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,” a Disney spokesperson said to the Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news.
Win or Lose is an upcoming Disney+ show from Pixar that follows the members of a co-ed softball team in the week leading up to the championship game. Each episode focuses on a different member of the team, telling the same story from their unique perspective. Yes, it’s basically Pixar Rashomon.
The character in question remains on the show but without a reference to their gender. According to reports, the decision was made several months ago and only took changing a few lines of dialogue. No other details were available.
After the initial news broke though, the actress who voices the character, Chanel Stewart, spoke to Deadline about her disappointment. “I was very disheartened,” Stewart said. “From the moment I got the script, I was excited to share my journey to help empower other trans youth. I knew this would be a very important conversation. Trans stories matter, and they deserve to be heard.”
She couldn’t divulge any other details beyond that the character she was voicing was no long trans. “My character would now be a cis girl, a straight cis girl,” she said. “So yeah, that’s all they really told me and that I was still a part of the show.” Read more about how Stewart got the role here.
This isn’t the first time the Mouse House has run into similar social issues. The most recent incident was the news that an upcoming episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur had been canceled because it dealt with trans kids playing sports, though the studio disputes those specific claims. It also ran into controversy over a brief glimpse of a kiss between two women in Lightyear and rumors spread that Inside Out 2 main character Riley had feelings directed toward another girl dialed back considerably. In these instances and others, one has to applaud the creatives who tried to subtly teach a younger audience the world is more unique and inclusive than their own personal experiences, and become angered at the executives who stopped it from happening.
It is worth noting, though, that in Disney’s more adult fare, we do see slightly more LGBTQ+ content. Agatha All Along followed the romance between two women, Fox’s Next Goal Wins featured a transgender character, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew recently revealed one of the characters had two moms. But nothing of the sort will be happening on Win or Lose when it debuts on Disney+ on February 19, 2025.
Update December 17, 6:30 p.m.: We’ve added the quotes and context from Deadline’s piece with voice actress Chanel Stewart.
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