Less than 24 hours after I pointed out how Andor creator Tony Gilroy revealed Disney told him “streaming is dead” and budgets were gone, it’s come out and been reported that the company has now laid off hundreds across its TV and film divisions.
According to Deadline, the sweeping cuts hit Disney Entertainment’s television and film marketing teams, television publicity, casting, and development. Several hundred employees are impacted globally.
Layoffs Hit TV, Film, and Corporate Offices
Disney’s television development and casting ranks were gutted. Among the names out:
- Eric Souliere, VP of Casting for 20th Television (behind 9-1-1 and AHS)
- Tony Tompson, VP of Content Development at Hulu Originals
- Additional exits include executives from ABC and Hulu’s drama teams
While some had contracts expire or left for new jobs, the timing and scale are clear, Disney is downsizing everything not tied to theme parks or sports. At Disney’s annual shareholder meeting this spring, Bob Iger said the company would focus on adding new jobs mostly tied to Disney Experiences like theme parks.
The Streaming Collapse Continues
This marks the fourth major round of layoffs in just 10 months, following the shutdown of ABC Signature, the merger of scripted teams, and deep cuts at NatGeo and FX. CEO Bob Iger originally promised $7.5 billion in cost reductions last year, and he’s still slashing.
Streaming, once positioned as Disney’s future, is now a liability. Even after a rare profit last quarter, the company is still cutting staff tied to Disney+, Hulu, and linear TV.
Last year, Iger confirmed that streaming lost $4 billion for the company.
“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories. Basically we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss,” Iger said at a conference.
Marvel and Star Wars in the Firing Line?
The timing of the layoffs – days after Gilroy said there’s no money for shows – raises questions about what’s next.
Ahsoka Season 2 is still moving forward, but The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew have both flopped. On the Marvel side, shows like Ironheart and Wonder Man are also looking like major busts, which follows the big flop of Daredevil: Born Again.
You can actually already make the case that Disney has made cuts to both Marvel and Star Wars.
As I went over in the previous article, there’s no doubt the budgets have been slashed for shows like Echo, Agatha, and Daredevil. The budget for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 doesn’t look to be any better. This comes after Marvel and Feige spent hundreds of millions on each show, such as She-Hulk and Secret Invasion. Nobody also tuned in for Ms. Marvel.
Star Wars is no different. Kennedy and Lucasfilm wasted hundreds of millions on The Acolyte. In turn, nobody watched Skeleton Crew. The Mandalorian Season 3 was also ruined.
As a result of all the failures at Marvel and Star Wars, Iger said he would be pulling back on both Marvel and Star Wars, which indeed has been the case.
