Late last year, entertainment industry tracker NRG (National Research Group) released a study concluding that 43% of young men aged 13-30 don’t know what it means to be a man in today’s society. “Like Ken in the ‘Barbie’ movie, men are struggling to figure out their own place,” the study says, referring to the hit movie’s multicultural troupe of “just Kens” who are baffled by the increasing power of women.

The report also suggests Hollywood may be remiss in not filling the void. “A sizable number (47%) of those surveyed are looking to fictional characters, public figures, and celebrities for masculine role models over real people in their lives — signaling how important it is that Hollywood and celebrities present a multi-faceted view of what it means to be a man,” the authors state.

For Hollywood, the report sounds both like a call to action and a potential opportunity, as the industry strategizes about how to reach an audience that has become increasingly elusive yet which has traditionally constituted a major target and driver of its content.

Although the study does not directly touch on American politics, it also may strike a nerve with an entertainment industry already seeing a wave of layoffs and re-vamps in studio diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staffs spurred by President Donald Trump’s mandate to remove DEI programs from federally-funded departments.

Even as such studies recognize an appetite for more sensitive men, Trump’s reelection sends a conflicting message, raising questions about how Hollywood might respond given the ideals advanced by Trump and his most ardent supporters.

Fergus Navaratnam-Blair, NRG’s research director for trends and futures based in the U.K., said the study was motivated in part by the fact that NRG’s entertainment industry clients are brainstorming ways for TV and movies to compete for young males’ attention against social media and videogames.

A crisis of masculinity

“The other aspect was this kind of broader conversation that we’ve been hearing … about the this idea of a crisis of masculinity,” Navaratnam-Blair told TheWrap. “There’s been a sort of emerging bipartisan consensus realizing this is something we need to deal with.”

James Bond (played by Daniel Craig in “No Time to Die”) has defined a certain image of masculinity on screen, but now the franchise is in flux. (MGM)

Yalda T. Unis, founder and CEO of the Center for Scholarship and Storytellers at UCLA, who is quoted in the report, said there is “definitely a risk” for the political zeitgeist to move the needle toward the masculine stereotype, even in liberal Hollywood — “which is all the more reason to flag it,” she added.

The study goes on to state that young men overwhelmingly cite superhero, fantasy and cartoon characters rather than than real-world characters as role models, suggesting “a growing need for more grounded and emotionally vulnerable male characters.”

The report does provide statistics suggesting that young men are connecting with at least some human, real-world role models. Per the study, Gen Z and millennials’ (born 1981-1997) top choices for male role models are basketball star LeBron James and the YouTube superstar MrBeast (a.k.a. Jimmy Donaldson).

And while the study addresses the need for more vulnerable men on screen, it also cites a number of popular male characters — several of them flawed or considered antiheroes — who’ve exposed their emotional side for decades, including Don Draper (“Mad Men”), Walter White (“Breaking Bad”), Tony Soprano (“The Sopranos”), Jimmy McNulty (“The Wire”), and more recently, Richard Gadd’s Donny Dunn in the Emmy-winning Netflix limited series “Baby Reindeer.”

“Baby Reindeer” creator and star Richard Gadd (Netflix)

Too much? Not enough? Whether or not you agree on the right amount of vulnerability in Hollywood’s onscreen recipe, it would be hard to refute that male characters have been showing their soft side for years (add Ted Lasso, Jason Siegel’s grieving therapist Jimmy on “Shrinking,” and Daniel Craig’s emotionally revealing final turn as James Bond in 2021’s “No Time to Die” to the mix).

Noodle boys?

As for the current crop of movie stars, they also reflect shifting perceptions of masculinity. In December, the New York Times wrote about the appeal of Timothée Chalamet, a Best Actor Oscar contender for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” and other lanky stars — including Dominic Sessa and Mark Eydelshteyn — in a piece headlined “The Rise of the Noodle Boys.” Their conclusion: What’s trending or hot on screen may not match the dominant political trends of the time.

But will the entertainment industry change its stripes, or seek to adapt to the unsettled political environment, as the next four years wear on? As one high-profile example, the search continues for a new James Bond. However, the game has changed on the direction Bond might take, and who’ll be tasked with making those decisions, with the news that Amazon MGM Studios has gained creative control over the franchise through a deal with longtime producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

The jury remains out as to the extent to which 007 might evolve, and whether the next Bond will maintain Craig’s sensitive, brooding persona from his final Bond outing.

Leah Aldridge, a professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts, suggested that audiences, including young men, may actually react to a strongman zeitgeist by seeking out more sensitive male role models as contrast.

“Hollywood follows trends, it doesn’t set them,” Aldridge told TheWrap. “That said, I wouldn’t be so sure we’re going to see a hard swing back to the ‘hard bodies’ Reagan era … Given how loud the incoming administration will be and will most certainly be amplified by news and infotainment media, the public may just intentionally choose cinematic entertainment that speaks to the reality of diverse masculinities.”    

The era of the “introspective superhero”

Jackson Katz, an educator and activist on issues of gender, race and violence, voiced a similar sentiment — and cited the power of female audiences in determining what kind of men will dominate Hollywood stories going forward.

“I would say Hollywood has changed,” Katz told TheWrap. “One of the key tectonic forces is feminism, women’s ascension both as consumers, but also as creators and writers.

“I mean, they want to make money in Hollywood,” Katz continued. “And if women aren’t going to go buy certain narratives, they’re going to make narratives that women are going to buy.”

Katz cited a departure from the simplified ideal of superhero movies “about men conquering the enemy and defending the homeland” in what he called “knuckle-dragging, traditional ways.” Instead, he described this as “the era of the the introspective superhero.”

Hollywood is still guessing how long that will last.