New Delhi: The Walt Disney Company has laid off nearly the entire visual department at Marvel Studios. It includes the artists, illustrators, character designers, environment designers, and other technical specialists behind the look of films from The Avengers to Guardians of the Galaxy.
The cuts are part of a wider round of layoffs announced on 14 April 2026, impacting around one thousand employees across Disney’s studios, TV networks, sports, and experiences divisions.
“I know this is hard. These 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,” read a memo shared by new CEO Josh D’Amaro.
D’Amaro stepped into the top role just weeks ago after succeeding Bob Iger. He was earlier chairman of Disney Experiences, the division that includes the company’s theme parks, cruise line and merchandising unit.
Citing “sources familiar with the layoffs”, Forbes reported that the downsizing was related to a reduction in the Marvel Studios production slate, along with wider cost-cutting measures and that it “does not appear that these specific jobs were eliminated for reasons involving AI”.
The team’s work contributed to over two dozen Academy Award nominations across the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), including three wins for Black Panther, but that track record was not enough to save their jobs.
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What went wrong with Marvel?
Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, and the deal helped cement the entertainment giant’s dominance at the box office. But in recent years, while Disney’s wider slate has thrived, its Marvel films have seen declining returns.
Disney had a strong run at the box office last year, becoming the highest-grossing Hollywood studio once again with a box office take of $6.85 billion, ahead of Warner Bros with $4.4 billion and Universal Pictures with $3.89 billion. Its biggest performers of 2025 were Zootopia 2 ($1.48 billion), Lilo & Stitch ($1.04 billion), and Avatar: Fire and Ash ($833 million).
Marvel, however, has struggled. The studio has faced growing criticism of its MCU output since the 2019 juggernaut Avengers: Endgame. Popular actors too made their exits. Scarlett Johansson, whose character Black Widow died in Endgame, has said she is done with Marvel and had a public dispute with Disney over streaming residuals. Zoe Saldaña, who played Gamora, announced her retirement from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise after Vol. 3. Spider-Man star Tom Holland and Thor actor Chris Hemsworth both took extended breaks from the franchise, though both are now reportedly set to return in 2026 — Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Hemsworth in Avengers: Doomsday.
New characters have also failed to hit the popularity benchmark. The Eternals (2021), meant to launch a new team of heroes, underperformed at the box office. The Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali, announced in 2019, has been delayed for years and was reported “dead” as a project early this year. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, released last year, did well at the box office but it wasn’t enough to offset the broader decline.
Last year, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige offered his diagnosis of the problem in a Variety interview: too much of a good thing.
“For the first time ever, quantity trumped quality,” he said. “We spent 12 years working on the Infinity Saga saying that’s never going to happen to us. We always had more characters than we could possibly make because we weren’t going to make a movie a month. Suddenly, there’s a mandate to make more. And we go, ‘Well, we do have more.’”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)