{"id":1890417,"date":"2026-04-18T14:30:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1890417"},"modified":"2026-04-18T14:30:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:30:34","slug":"marvel-studios-former-art-staff-discuss-shortsighted-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1890417","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Studios\u2019 Former Art Staff Discuss \u2018Shortsighted\u2019 Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2025\/12\/thor-avengers-doomsday-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Earlier this week, the entertainment industry was rocked when Disney announced 1,000 layoffs. Among those affected was Marvel Studios, whose visual development team going from 13-15 people to just a handful. This team\u2019s spent decades creating how characters look onscreen and typically has their work collected in big, expansive art books.<\/p>\n

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A recent Polygon report from several (now ex-) staffers explores the visdev team\u2019s history at Marvel. One former artist, speaking under anonymity, said the group existed because Kevin Feige \u201chad a particular vision of how things should be translated.\u201d The claim was backed up by\u00a0Moon Knight\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Captain America 4\u00a0<\/em>artist Michael Uwendi. In his words, the team would get to design characters and create visuals that inspired movies, often without looking at a script beforehand. As fans of the comics, he said the team knew \u201chow to push and pull while keeping it fan-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Because of that specificity, they weren\u2019t always popular with other departments. \u201c[It wasn\u2019t] like a rivalry,\u201d the first source stressed, \u201cbut some sort of politics went on in these departments.\u201d (Another source noted the costume department as one of many that \u201cdidn\u2019t like having us around.\u201d)<\/p>\n

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the irony of having a one-on-one HR layoff meeting in the conference room with my Loki mural on it https:\/\/t.co\/94sLrfojOj pic.twitter.com\/llKhz5pO61<\/p>\n

\u2014 Wesley Burt (@wesburt) April 15, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With an in-house development team, Marvel Studios developed a house style that became recognizable by longtime fans. Now that the team\u2019s been broken up, Uwandi\u2019s worried about what that\u2019ll mean for future projects in terms of cohesion, not to mention team synergy. When a team in any industry is laid off, the biggest casualty is institutional knowledge and camaraderie born from collaboration.<\/p>\n

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To Uwandi, these layoffs are \u201cshortsighted.\u201d But are they due to AI? He wouldn\u2019t be surprised, and neither would another artist with more recent Marvel work to their name. That person alleged other departments at Marvel Studios were using the controversial technology, including costume and art designers. (Not the visdev team, apparently.) But a third anonymous former member argued that wouldn\u2019t be the case, and that Marvel plans to rehire its cut artists \u201con a freelance basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the full reporting here.<\/p>\n

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Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Earlier this week, the entertainment industry was rocked when Disney announced 1,000 layoffs. Among those affected was Marvel Studios, whose visual development team going from 13-15 people to just a handful. This team\u2019s spent decades creating how characters look onscreen and typically has their work collected in big, expansive art books.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A recent Polygon report from several (now ex-) staffers explores the visdev team\u2019s history at Marvel. One former artist, speaking under anonymity, said the group existed because Kevin Feige \u201chad a particular vision of how things should be translated.\u201d The claim was backed up by\u00a0Moon Knight\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Captain America 4\u00a0<\/em>artist Michael Uwendi. In his words, the team would get to design characters and create visuals that inspired movies, often without looking at a script beforehand. As fans of the comics, he said the team knew \u201chow to push and pull while keeping it fan-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Because of that specificity, they weren\u2019t always popular with other departments. \u201c[It wasn\u2019t] like a rivalry,\u201d the first source stressed, \u201cbut some sort of politics went on in these departments.\u201d (Another source noted the costume department as one of many that \u201cdidn\u2019t like having us around.\u201d)<\/p>\n

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the irony of having a one-on-one HR layoff meeting in the conference room with my Loki mural on it https:\/\/t.co\/94sLrfojOj pic.twitter.com\/llKhz5pO61<\/p>\n

\u2014 Wesley Burt (@wesburt) April 15, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With an in-house development team, Marvel Studios developed a house style that became recognizable by longtime fans. Now that the team\u2019s been broken up, Uwandi\u2019s worried about what that\u2019ll mean for future projects in terms of cohesion, not to mention team synergy. When a team in any industry is laid off, the biggest casualty is institutional knowledge and camaraderie born from collaboration.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

To Uwandi, these layoffs are \u201cshortsighted.\u201d But are they due to AI? He wouldn\u2019t be surprised, and neither would another artist with more recent Marvel work to their name. That person alleged other departments at Marvel Studios were using the controversial technology, including costume and art designers. (Not the visdev team, apparently.) But a third anonymous former member argued that wouldn\u2019t be the case, and that Marvel plans to rehire its cut artists \u201con a freelance basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the full reporting here.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/marvel-studios-former-art-staff-discuss-shortsighted-layoffs-2000748109″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2025\/12\/thor-avengers-doomsday-1200×675.jpg”] Earlier this week, the entertainment industry was rocked when Disney announced 1,000 layoffs. Among those affected was Marvel Studios, whose visual development team going from 13-15 people to just a handful. This team\u2019s spent decades creating how characters look onscreen and typically has their work collected in big, expansive art books. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-1890417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1890417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1890417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1890417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1890417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}