Disney is currently in the midst of a spate of layoffs driven by CEO Bob Iger. The latest to get the chop is Ike Perlmutter, the head of Marvel Entertainment.
Perlmutter oversaw the comic book, product, and licensing wing of the company. Pointedly, he was not in charge of the movies…although he used to be. As The Wall Street Journal tells it:
"Iger and Perlmutter have had a tense relationship since 2015, when Mr. Perlmutter’s quarrels with current Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige over budgets and movie slates grew so intense that Mr. Iger, then in his first stint as Disney’s CEO, intervened and removed Mr. Perlmutter as CEO of Marvel’s movie studio, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Iger later stripped Mr. Perlmutter of further responsibilities, including control over Marvel’s television shows, heightening the acrimony between them, these people said."
Disney claims that it laid off Perlmutter because Marvel Entertainment has been folded into he rest of Disney during a reorganization, rendering his job redundant. But it seems like Iger may have seen the current blast of layoffs as a chance to get rid of a thorn in his side, particularly after Perlmutter pushed for his friend Nelson Peltz to be on the Disney board in what the company saw as an attempt to “overhaul the company’s board.”
Ike Perlmutter had an important, controversial history at Marvel
Perlmutter was a headache for other reasons. A member of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, he was one of three club members revealed to have been advising then-President Trump on the running of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Per ProPublica, he was trying to get the VA to sell veteran’s medical records.
For all that, Perlmutter was hugely influential in shaping the course of Marvel’s path as a company. When Marvel filed for bankruptcy in the late 1990s, Perlmutter and his business partner Avi Arad bought Marvel through their company Toy Biz. The pair then sold Marvel to Disney in 2008 for $4 billion, and the rest is history.
Important as he was, Perlmutter was reclusive; I couldn’t even find a picture of him in our Getty database. And he’s not the only high-profile person Disney has let go recently.
Victoria Alonso claims she was “silenced” by Disney
Recently, Marvel fired its longtime president of physical production, post-production, VFX and animation Victoria Alonso, who had been with the company since before 2008’s Iron Man, which marked the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe we know today.
Disney has claimed that it fired Alonso “for cause,” although the exact cause is unclear. There has been increased criticism of Marvel VFX lately, for one. Some employees claimed she would blacklist artists who have “pissed her off in any way,” for two. And for three, she worked on the Oscar-nominated film Argentina, 1985, which was distributed by Amazon Studios. This may have violated a clause in her contract that prohibited her from working with other studios.
Alonso sees it differently. Speaking through her attorney Patty Glaser, she claims that she has been “silenced” by Disney after encouraging then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek to take a stand against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year:
"The idea that Victoria was fired over a handful of press interviews relating to a personal passion project about human rights and democracy that was nominated for an Oscar and which she got Disney’s blessing to work on is absolutely ridiculous. Victoria, a gay Latina who had the courage to criticize Disney, was silenced. Then she was terminated when she refused to do something she believed was reprehensible. Disney and Marvel made a really poor decision that will have serious consequences. There is a lot more to this story and Victoria will be telling it shortly—in one forum or another."
Disney hit back with a statement of its own:
"It’s unfortunate that Victoria is sharing a narrative that leaves out several key factors concerning her departure, including an indisputable breach of contract and a direct violation of company policy,” they said. “We will continue to wish her the best for the future and thank her for her numerous contributions to the studio."
There was a time when Marvel seemed pretty much bulletproof in the entertainment industry. Now, it’s going through some big changes and facing some scandals:
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h/t Variety