For more than a decade, Hollywood has operated on a simple theory that young dudes want to see stuff get blowed up real good by tortured superpowered burly men who save the world without ever discussing their feelings.
The tide may have turned, reports Deadline.
The 2025 “Teens & Screens” report from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA found that Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers, ages 10 to 24, prefer emotionally available male characters over unknowable, emotionally distant superheroes by a huge margin. The study was conducted in August 2025 with 1500 respondents across the United States. It pretty clearly and loudly indicates that young people want, for instance, portrayals of fathers who actually enjoy parenting, a sharp contrast from the miserable portrayals of fatherhood popularized by established weirdo Louis CK’s stand-up career.
More than that, they want overall portrayals of adult men who are emotionally expressive and capable of being nurturing while also demonstrating a willingness to seek help when they need it. From that, I gather a lot of young people are sick of the emotionally wrecked manosphere influencers who preach extreme individualism and the unhealthy bottling of emotions, or worse, the unleashing of bottled negative emotions on someone vulnerable.
Where Have All the Good Men Gone?
The kids were pretty loud and clear: they want good adult male role models in the media.
The survey even gets into specifics, pointing out characters already on TV that are a shining example of exactly what they’re talking about: Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch from The Pitt, played by Noah Wyle. Dr. Robby is a flawed but emotionally present guy who mentors others and leads with empathy and soul within the madness and misery of an emergency room. Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they would prefer characters like him over the kind that have dominated superhero cinema for nearly 20 years.
This is likely what industry prognosticators are really talking about when they talk about superhero fatigue, the term that gained traction after Avengers: Endgame seemed to signal the zenith of the genre. There have been plenty of superhero films released since, many to critical acclaim, and many have been financial juggernauts, but none have quite captured the cultural moment as Endgame did, and it remains to be seen if any of them ever will again. Avengers: Doomsday is up to bat next, so we will see.
UCLA’s data suggests that the media has long defaulted to portraying men as stoic providers or emotionally distant superheroes, whereas young viewers, by stark contrast, are asking for a version of masculinity rooted in emotional vulnerability and connection. They want men who take care of people and express their own vulnerabilities while being empathic and doing it all with a degree of competence. It’s a generation of young men who want good leaders because the ones they’ve been seeing for the past 20 years, and likely specifically the past 10, have been woefully lacking, to say the very least.
The post Gen Alpha Is Sick of Superheroes. They Want Father Figures Instead. appeared first on VICE.
