Disney has reportedly initiated significant layoffs across its marketing, production, legal, franchise, visuals, and finance departments, with global employees of Marvel Studios, ESPN and other major Disney arms impacted.
Disney CEO John D’Amaro reportedly told staff in a memo that the cuts were to ‘streamline’ the company’s operations moving forward, to help ‘serve consumers in an even more connected way’.
Per Variety, the layoffs follow a recent consolidation at Disney, which saw the company form a new enterprise marketing division. It’s believed many of the job cuts relate to marketing functions across Disney’s major studios and operations – although reports from Deadline and Forbes outline further impacts across wider functions at Marvel Studios, too.
Disney layoffs – quick links
Difficult decisions at Disney
‘Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney,’ D’Amaro reportedly wrote to employees.
‘Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs. As a result, we will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company and have begun notifying impacted employees.’
D’Amaro reportedly noted the decision directly related to a ‘continual evaluation of how to more effectively manage [Disney] resources and reinvest in [the] business,’ further claiming the layoffs were not a reflection of the contributions of employees or the overall strength of the company.
‘Despite these difficult decisions, I remain optimistic about where we’re headed as a company,’ D’Amaro reportedly said.
Marvel reportedly impacted significantly by Disney layoffs
A report for Deadline, also corroborated by Forbes, claims Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment employees in New York and Burbank have been significantly impacted by the announced layoffs, with around 8% of this workforce believed to have been let go.
That includes employees working across all departments, including film and TV production, comics, franchise, finance, legal and the visual department.
Deadline reports major cuts within the visual department specifically, with Marvel Studios allegedly only retaining a ‘small team’ to oversee artist hiring on a project-by-project contract basis.
Forbes reports that some artists who were previously full-time at the company will transition to be contractors as part of these changes, seemingly reducing the stability of their employment.
As the Forbes notes, these changes reflect similar moves across the wider global entertainment industry, with the video games industry recently undergoing a similar, rocky transformation, with layoffs across major companies worldwide.
At this stage, it’s unclear what happens next.
Questions remain about Disney’s interest in AI
Forbes notes there is no indication that roles were eliminated for reasons involving AI, although Disney has previously expressed a desire to continue exploring opportunities in this space – even despite its partnership with OpenAI recently ending.
‘We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators,’ a company spokesperson said at the time.
Should roles be designated for replacement with AI, we’re unlikely to hear public word of this transformation, particularly given the public malaise around AI, and how it’s contributed to major job insecurity and anxiety in recent years.
As always in situations like these, our thoughts are with those employees impacted by these reported layoffs.
