Marvel Studios is shaking it up majorly with the exit of its highest-profile, out executive Victoria Alonso.
Alsonso was known across the industry for her passionate fight for more inclusion and diversity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and had been with the company since its first blockbuster film, Iron Man. However, this didn’t stop her from being fired — something that reportedly blindsided the executive.
According to Variety, sources have said that “the decision was made by a consortium including human resources, Disney’s legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman,” and that Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige had an opportunity to intervene, but felt trapped in an impossible situation and did not.
While no official reason for Alonso's exit has been announced, that hasn’t stopped people from speculating why this major shakeup went down.
Over the past year or so, several visual effects artists who worked for Marvel have been opening up about being overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. When that is combined with growing criticisms that Marvel movies and shows are becoming watered down with generic and flat CGI, a picture seems to start to emerge.
Recent Marvel projects, including Thor: Love and Thunder and most recent MCU movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, have underperformed in theaters, something that is a new trend for the studio.
While this might seem like an obvious reason for Alonso’s firing, a senior VFX artist told Variety that the idea that Alonso would single out and bully artists was false.
“The idea of a very senior exec terrifying rank and file artists, per some reports, feels a bit off,” they said. Additionally, three up-and-coming Marvel actors agreed that Alonso was nothing but supportive on set.
Alonso has yet to comment on her exit.