Trouble in the House of the Mouse on the Horizon as Marvel Lays off a Number of Employees

2023 was a difficult year for Disney. It was the first year in recent times that the company did not have a billion-dollar movie at the box office. All of its major projects flopped (when you take into account expectations), especially MCU projects, with ‘The Marvels’ seeing record-breaking failure, being the first MCU movie not to cross the $100 million threshold at the domestic box office.

Led by this, Iger announced months ago that the studio would be changing its strategy. Focusing on less content output, he also wants to focus on sure hits, meaning that some rumored projects are no longer in development. Recently, the rumors were that the planned ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Ant-Man’ installments were canceled.

All of this will inevitably have effect on their workforce, and luckily, currently, it affects only a small number of employees.

Marvel recently laid off 15 employees across Marvel Entertainment in New York and Marvel Studios in Burbank according to Deadline sources. The layoffs mainly affected junior staff in production and development at Marvel Studios, attributed to Marvel reevaluating and reducing their upcoming slate. These cuts coincide with Marvel Studios having only one feature release this year, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ scheduled for July 26. Additional layoffs are not anticipated at this time.

These layoffs are linked to Marvel’s integration of Marvel Entertainment into Marvel Studios and other Disney departments following former Marvel exec Ike Perlmutter’s exit in March 2023. Perlmutter oversaw consumer products, comic book publishing, game licensing, and arena shows.

His departure coincided with Disney’s broader cost-cutting measures, which included cutting 7,000 jobs. Marvel Entertainment, previously run separately from Marvel Studios, was seen as redundant and folded into the larger Disney business unit.

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