Disney Guts Key Marvel Studios Team with Major Layoffs
The studio behind the highest-grossing film franchise of all time just took a major blow from layoffs by its parent company, The Walt Disney Company. In a move meant to “streamline operations,” according to new CEO Josh D'Amaro in a company memo, Disney will lay off 1,000 employees this week across all divisions.
Marvel Studios took a significant hit, losing almost an entire division that has been crucial since the comic book movie studio began production on its first film, Iron Man. Marvel also faces layoffs in its non-film and TV branches, including comics, legal and finance.
Aside from a skeleton crew left behind, nearly the entire visual development team was let go. The Academy Award-winning team was responsible for creating the visual look of the films during preproduction. These artists worked on everything from costume and environment concept designs to keyframe illustrations.
Disney has laid off nearly the entire visual development team at Marvel Studios.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 14, 2026
Only a skeleton crew remains in place to coordinate hiring on a per-project basis.
(Source: https://t.co/ECE1FlgROx) pic.twitter.com/MjXsqIEkNj
“I know this is hard,” D’Amaro wrote in a memo to employees. “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.”
It has been reported that the company is not planning to replace artists with AI, but instead plans to move to a contractor structure rather than full-time employees. The remaining full-time team members will coordinate hiring for future projects on a per-project basis.
These layoffs come in light of Marvel Studios drastically reducing the amount of content it releases each year.
In 2024, former Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed plans to scale back annual output.
“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three,” Iger said. “And we’re working hard on what that path is.”
Many of the employees let go had been with the company for more than a decade.