Marvel Studios’ Former Artwork Employees Focus on ‘Shortsighted’ Layoffs

Earlier this week, the leisure business was rocked when Disney introduced 1,000 layoffs. Amongst these affected was Marvel Studios, whose visible growth crew going from 13-15 individuals to only a handful. This crew’s spent many years creating how characters look onscreen and sometimes has their work collected in huge, expansive artwork books.

A latest Polygon report from a number of (now ex-) staffers explores the visdev crew’s historical past at Marvel. One former artist, talking beneath anonymity, stated the group existed as a result of Kevin Feige “had a selected imaginative and prescient of how issues must be translated.” The declare was backed up by Moon Knight and Captain America 4 artist Michael Uwendi. In his phrases, the crew would get to design characters and create visuals that impressed films, usually with out taking a look at a script beforehand. As followers of the comics, he stated the crew knew “find out how to push and pull whereas conserving it fan-friendly.”

Due to that specificity, they weren’t all the time fashionable with different departments. “[It wasn’t] like a rivalry,” the primary supply harassed, “however some form of politics went on in these departments.” (One other supply famous the costume division as one among many who “didn’t like having us round.”)

the irony of getting a one-on-one HR layoff assembly within the convention room with my Loki mural on it https://t.co/94sLrfojOj pic.twitter.com/llKhz5pO61

— Wesley Burt (@wesburt) April 15, 2026

With an in-house growth crew, Marvel Studios developed a home model that turned recognizable by longtime followers. Now that the crew’s been damaged up, Uwandi’s frightened about what that’ll imply for future initiatives when it comes to cohesion, to not point out crew synergy. When a crew in any business is laid off, the largest casualty is institutional data and camaraderie born from collaboration.

To Uwandi, these layoffs are “shortsighted.” However are they resulting from AI? He wouldn’t be stunned, and neither would one other artist with more moderen Marvel work to their title. That particular person alleged different departments at Marvel Studios had been utilizing the controversial expertise, together with costume and artwork designers. (Not the visdev crew, apparently.) However a 3rd nameless former member argued that wouldn’t be the case, and that Marvel plans to rehire its minimize artists “on a contract foundation.”

You’ll be able to learn the total reporting here.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every part it’s good to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.