Your Boldest Moves Are Never Coming From A Spreadsheet

Black Panther and Captain Marvel were horrible ideas.

Atleast that’s what the executives said; who sat around the table with Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney.

The data was obvious:

• Female-led superhero movies? Flops like Catwoman and Elektra proved it won’t work.

• A Black superhero lead? It had never worked globally before.

But Bob knew it wasn’t about gender or race, they were just bad stories.

The gut instinct resulted in both movies making north of a billion dollars in box office introducing a major new thread in the Marvel universe.

Once these bets paid off, the data finally caught up. Diversity wasn’t a risk anymore—it was a roadmap. Marvel could now point to hard numbers, social listening, and fan feedback to guide future content. What started as gut turned into a data engine.

That’s the real lesson.

If you wait for numbers to validate every move, you’ll never lead but only follow.

So lead with gut. Build the story. Then measure what it unlocks.