Layoffs have hit Disney, with both the West Coast and East Coast offices being affected.
According to multiple sources, Marvel Comics was affected although the names we’re hearing have not been confirmed.
The moves came even as the entertainment industry was putting on a showy display of new projects this week at CinemaCon, with Disney expected to have a massive showing for Avengers: Doomsday.
About 1000 people were laid off, most notably nearly the entire visual development team at Marvel studios as reported by Forbes.
One division hit hard is Marvel, which is losing staff from both New York and Burbank, across most areas of the organization including film and tv production, comics, franchise, finance, and legal. That includes the nearly the entire Academy Award-winning visual development team at Marvel Studios.
These are the artists, illustrators, character designers, environment designers and other technical specialists responsible for the look of Marvel’s film and television productions, from The Avengers to Guardians of the Galaxy to Daredevil. Many had been with Marvel for a decade or more.
Nearly the entire department has been let go, with only a skeleton crew of full time production staff remaining in place to coordinate the hiring of resources on a per-project basis. Reports and social media posts discussing the layoffs began circulating on public and private channels mid-day Tuesday.
According to The Wrap, the marketing and publicity departments were also hit hard, including Asad Ayaz, the company’s chief marketing and brand officer and Dustin Sandoval, SVP of Global Digital Marketing.
Among those let go are 20 people from the company’s publicity departments, as well as the entire home entertainment team, led by executive director of global publicity and marketing communications Chris Bess. Also gone is the EPK team, including director of creative content Natalie Clunis.
On the digital marketing side, positions at every level were eliminated including SVP of Global Digital Marketing Dustin Sandoval and Director of Digital Marketing Mike Reeder.
Disney disputed that Marvel’s layoffs comprised 8% of the workforce, telling The Wrap it was much less.
The Beat has confirmed with multiple sources that Marvel Comics experienced layoffs, but we have not yet confirmed the extent and who was involved. I will say that one name is shooting around the digital campfire and it fits in with cuts to marketing.
Media sites who asked about the layoffs at Marvel were told that it was because of a an overall reduction in Marvel’s film and television production slate, with “further efficiencies from the integration of Marvel Entertainment into Marvel Studios, and a focus on overall operational efficiency and cost management.”
Losing the artists and creatives of visual development – the concept artists as they were once known – is a brutal blow the actual creative people who worked at Marvel. However the staff had been “over inflated” over the years when the MCU was churning our four or five TV shows and movies a year. That output has been drastically reduced as the MCU era really is ending.
Visual development crews will be hired on a freelance basis for projects moving forward.
Newly installed Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro used the term “technologically-enabled workforce” while announced the cuts in a letter to staff, fueling fears that the cuts are based on AI replacing humans. Considering that the Fantastic Four movie was considered something of a squib, and came under fire for allegedly using AI in its marketing materials, I would say that idea would be extremely foolish if implemented.
We’ll update the stories as more details become available, however, as always, our sympathies to those newly jobless, and to those who remain.
