Some of the creatives who helped shape the transgender storyline for the Pixar series Win or Lose are mourning its loss after The Hollywood Reporter broke the news last week that the character at its center will now be portrayed as cisgender.
“It hardly surprised me, but it devastated me,” Sarah Ligatich, a former Pixar assistant editor who consulted on the episode, tells THR. “For a long time, Disney has not been in the business of making great content. They have been in the business of making great profits. Even as far back as two years ago when I was at Pixar, we had a meeting with [then-CEO] Bob Chapek, and they were clear with us that they see animation as a conservative medium.”
As THR reported, Win or Lose — focusing on a middle school co-ed softball team called the Pickles with a voice cast including Will Forte as coach — is scuttling a storyline involving a character named Kai expressing her trans identity. A spokesperson for Disney, which acquired the acclaimed animation studio in 2006, said in a statement that “many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”
THR spoke to multiple former Pixar staffers who expressed their sorrow and dismay at the company having axed this storyline. One also noted the apparent irony of the Disney statement, given that the company’s animated films are known for including such adult themes as the death of a parent (Bambi, The Lion King) or substance use (Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio). Of particular frustration was the episode having already been completed, meaning that adjusting story elements requires the team to scramble to be ready for the February release, not to mention that this brings added expense.
“The episode in its final form was so beautiful — and beautifully illustrated some of the experiences of being trans — and it was literally going to save lives by showing those who feel alone and unloved, that there are people out there who understand,” says one former Pixar employee who did not work directly on the show but had seen it and asked to remain anonymous. The insiders note that the episode had changed significantly from older footage that has circulated on social media last week and showed the character deliberating over which bathroom to use. “So it’s just very frustrating that Disney has decided to spend money to not save lives.”
Win or Lose
Disney/Pixar
Pixar’s moves of late have spurred debate about the direction of its projects and whether it intends to prioritize diversity. After the company laid off 14 percent of its staff in May, Pete Docter — the Inside Out director who replaced John Lasseter as chief creative officer in 2018 — raised eyebrows with an interview about the company’s latest goals. In light of Pixar seeing a few titles underperform in recent years, Docter said that the studio should make the “most relatable films” possible, which was perceived by some as advocating for a shift away from more autobiographical stories centering on underrepresented characters and voices.
His remarks came in the wake of the 2022 criticism of Chapek’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This was followed later that year by right-wing pundits creating a furor over a same-gender kiss in Pixar’s 2022 Toy Story spinoff movie Lightyear. Recently, members of the team behind Disney Channel’s animated series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur made headlines with social media posts noting that the company had decided not to release an episode centering on a recurring transgender character.
“It’s 100 percent political,” a former Pixar employee who identifies as trans says about the Win or Lose decision. He notes that ABC News recently paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by President-elect Donald Trump: “Disney just had the settlement with Trump. We saw it recently with the Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl episode that was cut. All of us who knew about Win or Lose and this character were all just clenching: ‘Please don’t hit us next.’”
Indeed, those with Pixar ties worry that the Win or Lose change is not an isolated situation in terms of projects pulling back on their messages. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in April, “The bottom line is that infusing messaging as sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining, and where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world, whether it’s, you know, fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great.”
According to a former Pixar artist, the team behind Hoppers, the 2026 Jon Hamm-led Pixar film focusing on a human and beaver who swap bodies, was forced to downplay its planned message of environmentalism. “Unfortunately, when you have your whole film based around the importance of environmentalism, you can’t really walk back on that,” says the artist, who did not work directly on the movie. “That team struggled a lot to figure out, ‘What do we even do with this note?’”
Another title that turned heads internally was the forthcoming original feature Elio, centering on a boy who teams up with aliens. It had initially been slated to hit theaters in March but saw its release date pushed to summer 2025. Initial Elio director Adrian Molina, who is a gay man, departed the film earlier this year. Docter has stated that Molina, who will receive a director credit, moved to a different Pixar project.
In the meantime, Pixar released Inside Out 2 in June, en route to it becoming the year’s highest-grossing film.
Ligatich, who is trans, recalls feeling welcomed and valued during her two-and-a-half-year Pixar tenure before being laid off in May. She has been in contact with members of the Win or Lose creative team, including executive producer David Lally, following Disney’s decision to excise the storyline for teen trans actress Chanel Stewart. Ligatich also expresses frustration that the show has been completed for quite some time and saw its release date delayed multiple times after the initial launch was set for a year ago.
“I can’t tell you how much I cried yesterday thinking about that conversation that David had to have with [Chanel],” Ligatich says. “Not only are you asking someone to play someone they’re not, but to also get them to wrap their mind around a political conversation that is just so beyond them,” says Ligatich. “They had this story in the can for two years, so they could have released it in a Biden presidency, and they chose not to.” (For her part, Stewart has said she was “very disheartened” about her retooled character.)
Ligatich says she knows artists who do not want to work on the Win or Lose episode in question, though insiders note that staffers were given the option not to work on the episode. So far nobody has taken the company up on that offer.
Whether other animation studios will follow Pixar’s lead in potentially limiting queer storylines and other aspects of diverse or potentially polarizing storytelling remains to be seen. Because of this, one of Ligatich’s fellow Pixar castoffs is working to launch an independent animation studio to encourage underrepresented voices.
Ligatich believes that there is a market for such animated stories at places like Netflix, which may not focus on creating LGBTQ content, but has made some noteworthy acquisitions in the space.
“Netflix is more than happy to host content that tells authentic LGBTQ stories,” Ligatich says of the streamer that earned an Oscar nomination this year for its acquired title Nimona. That film, praised as a trans allegory, had previously lost its home when the Disney-acquired Blue Sky Studios was shut down in 2021. “That’s really how it’s going to go moving forward, is you’re going to see a lot of indie studios pop up to tell stories.”
