According to Sana Amanat, Marvel’s Director of Content and Character Development, Max Ride: First Flight is “a very high-flying adventure with a lot of heart.” But they wanted to be sure Max didn’t fall prey to some of the typical Strong Female Character pitfalls you see in pop culture. Said Amanat,
The tendency has been, when you create a strong female character, people tend to make her bitchy. And that frustrates me, because the idea is that a woman is only strong because she’s tough; she’s a bad-ass; she’s wise-cracking; nobody bothers her. There are some characters where that works, to an extent, but that really devalues who women actually are, the diverse experiences that we have. Sometimes what drives us is our connectivity; our love for one another and our relationships; our desire to improve ourselves or create better versions of ourselves. I think creating more complex characters across the board is very important, but creating complex personalities that are women is necessary.