Highlights
- Nearly entire visual development team dismissed.
- Academy Award-winning artists lose full-time positions.
- Marvel moving to contractor-based production model.
Reports from Forbes and industry publications confirm only a small group of full-time production staff remains to hire outside contractors for individual projects.
The change fundamentally alters how Marvel approaches visual design, moving from dedicated in-house experts to temporary workers.
New Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took over in March 2026 after Bob Iger stepped down, announced the cuts in an internal memo on April 14.
D'Amaro said the job losses aimed to "streamline operations" and create a "more agile and technologically-enabled workforce."
Broader industry impact
The layoffs affected roughly 8 percent of Marvel's workforce across both Marvel Studios in Burbank and Marvel Entertainment in New York. The cuts hit film, television, comics, legal and finance departments.
Traditional television operations including ESPN and corporate staff also saw reductions.
Sources say the visual development team cuts happened because Marvel Studios previously announced it would make fewer productions, not because of artificial intelligence replacement.
However, the shift towards contract-based creative work raises questions about the industry's future.
D'Amaro addressed the difficulty in his employee memo, saying the decisions "are not a reflection of their contributions, or of the overall strength of the company.
Rather, they reflect our continual evaluation of how to more effectively manage our resources and reinvest in our businesses."
Some dismissed visual development artists will change from full-time employees to contractors working on single projects.
This marks a major shift in how big studios keep creative talent and knowledge.
The entertainment industry has seen widespread creative job cuts. Disney's move follows similar patterns across advertising, video games and media production, where project-based hiring increasingly replaces permanent jobs.
