What kind of a villain doesn’t smoke?
Well according to Disney, not one that will be in their movies…anymore.
The company announced that going forward, all depictions of smoking from its films released by its child-orientated labels [including Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm] rated G through PG-13 will be banned.
The media company shared this in a press release:
The Walt Disney Company has become the first major Hollywood studio to prohibit cigarette smoking depictions in films they produce with youth ratings. The company’s new policy will limit smoking depictions to films with an R rating, a move the U.S. Surgeon General has said could save the lives of over 1,000,000 children if the entire industry followed suit.
And here is an excerpt from Disney’s official onscreen smoking policy, via the company’s website, which was last updated in June 2015. There are just two exceptions to the new rules:
Disney has determined not to depict cigarette smoking in movies produced by it after 2015 (2007 in the case of Disney branded movies) and distributed under the Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Lucasfilm labels, that are rated G, PG or PG-13, except for scenes that:
-depict a historical figure who may have smoked at the time of his or her life; or
-portray cigarette smoking in an unfavorable light or emphasize the negative consequences of smoking.
It’ll be interesting to see how future villains will be portrayed going forward!