Last month, Disney made more moves at Marvel, eliminating Marvel’s visual development team, including legendary artist Andy Park, who helped define the look and shape of the MCU’s characters.
That wasn’t all. Disney also made moves at the executive and editorial levels at Marvel Comics, even removing an editor who had been responsible for selling half a million copies of a new Daredevil comic just weeks earlier.
Over the past ten years of going to San Diego Comic-Con, I have met a lot of people in the industry, from Disney employees and Marvel Studios executives to writers, VFX artists, cinematographers, actors, and more.
You may recall that I wrote from SDCC last year that I overheard a Marvel Studios executive in a heated discussion with a renowned VFX artist about how Disney ruined Marvel.
So, following Disney’s latest moves at Marvel, I got in touch to ask what is going on at Disney. Here’s what I’ve been told.
Disney Restructuring Around AI To Compete With Paramount-WBD
Disney is restructuring around AI, streamlining production, maximizing content output, and pushing for greater efficiency with fewer workers.
The company also has to compete with Paramount, which will surpass it in the global streaming race once it merges with Warner Bros. and acquires HBO Max. The combined company will also have assets that include Batman, Superman, DC, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Transformers, TMNT, and more.
Disney resting and reseting legacy IPs
The word is Disney is actively looking for new things to acquire, including material that can serve both the family audience and the adult audience through Fox.
I’m told, “They need new material to rest their legacy IP before they relaunch them again.”
They add, “Lionsgate is not out of the question.”
In other words, Disney may be looking to bench the legacy IP that hasn’t been working, let it cool off, and relaunch it later.
While that happens, the company wants outside IP that can serve both lanes: family content under Disney and adult material through Fox.
We could make the case that it is already happening with Marvel and Star Wars. So Disney is apparently looking for something to fill the gap in the meantime.
Regarding Lionsgate, they have a reported library worth nearly $6 billion, which includes IPs like John Wick, The Hunger Games, Rambo, Roblox, Twilight, and more. Just last month, Lionsgate reported a quarterly profit.
Marvel Comics Getting Pushed Aside?
Specifically regarding Marvel Comics, insiders say Disney is “less interested in publishing” and is looking more at licensing out the comics.
They pointed to John Byrne’s X-Men: Elsewhen at Abrams ComicArts (not Marvel Entertainment) as an example of where Marvel Comics may be headed, and said the same goes for Star Wars.
That’s a big shift, and we break down what it means in Disney losing interest in publishing Marvel Comics and looking to license them out.
Marvel Comics has been treated less like the foundation of the brand and more like a content farm for other divisions. It’s something Tom Brevoort even confirmed when he said: “But the purpose of Marvel Publishing is to be out in front, the tip of the spear, generating new ideas and new stories that can serve as creative fodder for eventual film and animation development.”
The problem is that the comics are where these characters are supposed to be built, tested, and kept alive. The comics are supposed to serve as the inspiration, not vice versa.
And if Disney is less interested in publishing, then Marvel loses another piece of what made it Marvel in the first place.
DC Is Killing It In Comics While Marvel Pulls Back
On the flip side, insiders pointed out that DC is “killing it in comics,” with its Absolute line outselling Marvel and driving the Absolute Batman animated series. We go deeper in DC’s Absolute line topping Marvel and pushing Absolute Batman to animation.
While Disney is cutting, restructuring, leaning into AI, and looking for new material to buy, DC has actually found something in comics that feels like it has momentum.
Marvel used to be the company setting the pace. Now Disney is looking for new material, resting legacy IP, and cutting the very people who helped shape the MCU and the comics line.
That’s not a sign of strength. That’s a company trying to squeeze more out of less while looking elsewhere for the next thing to feed the machine.
