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Disney Lays Off 1,000 Employees, Including Most of Marvel Visual Development Team
Disney has laid off almost all of Marvel's visual development team as part of broader cuts affecting 1,000 staffers company-wide. Marvel axed its director of visual development Andy Park after 16 years. Actor Evangeline Lilly, who plays the Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, publicly criticized the move in an Instagram video.
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Disney laid off almost all of Marvel's visual development team as part of company-wide cuts that affected 1,000 staffers. Marvel axed its director of visual development, Andy Park, who had been a member of the Marvel Studios family for 16 years. Park created the original Wasp super-suit and concept drawings.
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Evangeline Lilly, who plays Hope van Dyne/Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, reached out to Park amid reports of the layoffs. She posted a video on Instagram reacting to the news. In the video, Lilly said to Park, 'Is this true?
Lilly then expressed disbelief and sorrow over the decision. She stated, 'I can’t quite believe that… that Disney has let go of the artists who brought the Marvel Universe to life through their genius and that the people who invented these characters and who designed them are being replaced by AI. AI that will take their designs and take what they created and use it to create iterations of that.
I am so sorry, Andy. The layoffs occurred amid a larger Disney pivot to AI, according to Lilly's video post. She described reaching out to Park, her good friend and the genius behind the Wasp designs.
The cuts targeted visual artists who contributed to the Marvel Universe's creation.
