Disney’s Marvel Division Announces Layoffs, Output Reduction After Woke Flops

Disney’s Marvel announced a round of layoffs on Monday as the company hopes to adjust after a series of woke flops over the past several years.

The studio announced that it will be laying off a total of 15 employees, including production and development employees in Marvel Studios in Burbank, as well workers in the Marvel Entertainment division in New York, according to a report from Variety.

Following a disappointing 2023 slate of film and television releases, the studio is expected to cut back on its generally rapid pace of releases, which was initiated to support the Disney+ streaming service. Layoffs were also expected as Disney formalizes its decision to absorb the Marvel Entertainment banner, which had long operated independently, into the other divisions within the company.

Disney had already dismissed a number of Marvel executives, including chairman Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, after the decision was announced.

2023 included a number of box office disasters for Marvel and Disney as a whole. The once mighty studio suffered its biggest loss ever with the feminist themed “The Marvels” last year. “The Marvels,” which functioned as a sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” pulled in just $47 million in its opening weekend before finishing with a global haul of $140 million.

The film was an unprecedented disaster for the company considering its budget exceeding $300 million.

Following the film’s abysmal run at the box office, director Nia DaCosta followed the familiar theme of labelling movie goes as “sexists, racists and homophobes.”

“There are pockets where you go because you’re like, ‘I’m a super fan. I want to exist in the space of just adoration — which includes civilized critique,” DaCosta told Variety last year. ““Then there are pockets that are really virulent and violent and racist — and sexist and homophobic and all those awful things. And I choose the side of the light. That’s the part of fandom I’m most attracted to.”

Despite DaCosta’s ramblings, the film defined by its all-female, diverse cast had a 65 percent male audience.