Marvel Comics is leaving New York.
Not opening a second headquarters. Not sending a few executives west.
After nearly 90 years in the city where the company and most of its biggest heroes were born, Marvel is moving its entire Comics and Franchise division to Burbank, California, the home of the MCU.
Just over 100 New York employees are being asked to relocate by July 2027, according to an exclusive report from The Hollywood Reporter.
On paper, this is an office move. In practice, Marvel Comics is being physically folded into the same Hollywood operation controlling Marvel’s movies, television, animation and franchise development.
We cover a lot more below.
Marvel’s New York Era Is Ending
Employees learned about the relocation Thursday during a town hall at Marvel’s Midtown Manhattan office led by Kevin Feige, Brad Winderbaum and new Comics and Franchise general manager David Abdo.
Marvel’s current lease on Avenue of the Americas expires next year, forcing Disney to make a decision about where the publishing operation would go next.
Disney chose Burbank.
The company will begin holding orientation sessions next week for affected employees and their families. Those who accept the relocation are expected to move within the next 12 months.
“We sincerely hope they choose to continue that journey with us in California,” Winderbaum and Abdo wrote in a company memo. “We are committed to supporting every affected employee throughout this transition.”
The move leaves New York without either of America’s two major superhero comic book publishers. DC Comics relocated to Warner Bros.’ Burbank headquarters in 2015.
Marvel now follows it out the door.
Marvel Comics Now Physically Answers To Hollywood
The relocation lands alongside the appointment of Stephen Wacker as Marvel Comics’ new Editor-in-Chief, replacing C.B. Cebulski, who is moving to Japan to oversee original Asian graphic fiction and manga.
Wacker will report to Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of television, animation, comics and franchise.
Marvel’s publishing division therefore no longer merely answers to executives working in movies and television. Its employees will now work beside them at Disney’s California headquarters.
Marvel says that is the point.
“This move will position the team beside our broader creative organization and create opportunities for collaboration across both Marvel and Disney,” Winderbaum and Abdo told employees.
“Bringing our comics, film, television, and other creative teams together will help us learn from one another, collaborate, and build on the strengths that make Marvel the true House of Ideas.”
Winderbaum has also described Marvel Comics as the “source code” of the entire company.
Put those statements together and the purpose of the move becomes clear: Comics is being centralized in Burbank so its characters and stories can feed Disney’s larger film, television, animation, gaming and merchandise operation.
The Overhaul Has Been Building For Months
This did not begin with Wacker or the relocation.
Marvel Comics has been undergoing a major corporate overhaul since Winderbaum took control and longtime publishing president Dan Buckley exited.
Abdo, who previously worked at Disney Music Group, was installed as general manager of Comics and Franchise despite coming from outside traditional comic book publishing.
Disney then carried out layoffs that removed longtime sales executive David Gabriel and multiple editors, including Daredevil editor Devin Lewis, who had just overseen a launch that sold around 500,000 copies.
The cuts reached Marvel Studios as well, where Disney eliminated its in-house visual development team and laid off veteran artist Andy Park after 16 years.
Now Marvel Comics has a new boss, a new Editor-in-Chief, a new corporate structure and, by next summer, a new home on the opposite side of the country.
What The Move Says About Marvel’s Future
THR frames the Burbank relocation as a long-term investment by Feige in the comic books that underpin Marvel’s characters and stories.
Marvel also says its goal remains making “the best comic books in the business.”
But the move also fits everything we have been reporting about Disney’s changing interest in traditional publishing.
Our insiders said Disney has become less interested in publishing Marvel Comics itself and has explored licensing the books to outside companies.
That was followed by a report that Marvel could phase its publishing operation over to Webtoon by around 2030, which Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld answered with two words: “Believe it.”
Liefeld later said every major entertainment company is chasing technology for the savings, describing the corporations involved as “bottom line, period.”
The licensing shift has since gone public at San Diego Comic-Con, with the canceled Marvel Masterworks line landing at Clover Press for a 2027 Kickstarter revival and a new manga line in Japan licensed to Kadokawa.
Moving Marvel Comics beside the film, television and franchise teams does not confirm that physical publishing is ending. It does show what Disney believes the comics division is primarily there to do.
Generate characters. Test concepts. Develop intellectual property. Feed the larger Marvel machine.
Marvel Comics is not merely leaving New York.
It is being absorbed into Hollywood.
