Disney cuts loose two top Marvel executives, begins 7,000 layoffs
March 31, 2023·6 min
Matt Bellany, filling in for Kim Masters, hosts Bloomberg entertainment editor Lucas Shaw to unpack a turbulent week at the Walt Disney Company. Disney has initiated the 7,000 layoffs announced months earlier, with cuts playing out over several weeks. Alongside the layoffs, Disney has publicly cut ties with Ike Perlmutter, the former Marvel Entertainment CEO who sold the company to Disney. Perlmutter had been on contract and collecting pay despite long-standing tensions with Marvel leadership. Shaw notes Perlmutter was largely isolated after Kevin Feige took over Marvel Studios. The hosts focus on Perlmutter's alleged role in encouraging hedge fund activist Nelson Peltz to launch a proxy fight against Disney. Shaw says Perlmutter and Peltz are friends in Florida and that Disney leadership believed Perlmutter was stoking the fight. The firing, they suggest, is Disney publicly repudiating him. Bellany points out the complication: Perlmutter remains a Disney shareholder and a vocal Trump supporter. The hosts wonder whether he could retaliate by selling stock or other means. They then turn to the firing of Victoria Alonso, Marvel's president of physical production, animation, and visual effects. Disney's official explanation is that Alonso breached her contract by doing press for Amazon's Argentina 1985 after being told not to. Shaw argues the contract issue reads as a technicality used to remove someone Marvel already wanted gone. He cites criticism of Marvel's visual effects work and broader discontent in the VFX community about working conditions. Alonso has highlighted her status as one of the most prominent Latina and LGBTQ executives in Hollywood, suggesting other tensions may be at play. Her lawyer claims she was asked to do something reprehensible and refused, though the specifics have not been disclosed. The hosts acknowledge neither side's account is complete. The segment closes with Bellany reminding listeners Shaw hosts The Business on KCRW.
