Marvel reeling from sudden departure of key executive

A key executive and 17-year veteran of Marvel Studios has exited the business, leaving the industry in shock.

Victoria Alonso had been a key executive on Marvel movies including Thor: Love & Thunder. Picture: Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios is reeling from the exit of major executive Victoria Alonso.

Alonso had been with Marvel’s screen business since its inception, joining the company in 2006 in the lead-up to the 2008 release of its first film, Iron Man.

The Hollywood Reporter said she left the business this past Friday. While the reasons are unclear, the move has taken the industry by surprise.

Alonso was influential within Marvel Studios, and was one of boss Kevin Feige’s key lieutenants. She was most recently promoted the president of physical and post-production, visual effects and animation production in 2021.

Alonso’s name will be familiar to many Marvel fans. She was a producer and then from 2012 executive producer on the studios’ dozens of movies and TV shows, often as the second or third credited executive after Feige.

Victoria Alonso’s sudden exit has shocked the industry. Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

And Alonso is expected to remain credited as an executive producer on a raft of upcoming Marvel projects, including The Marvels, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, Secret Invasion and Ironheart.

Alonso’s departure comes at a challenging time for the Disney-owned juggernaut studio, which has had a few uncharacteristic blips after more than a decade of dominating cinema culture.

Like other Hollywood studios, Marvel was affected by the global closure of cinemas during the pandemic, which disrupted its meticulously planned release strategy. Black Widow was simultaneously released on streaming, which led Scarlett Johansson to sue Disney. The legal action was later settled out of court.

Its most recent release, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has underwhelmed at the box office. After more than a month in release, its box office is sitting at $US463 million worldwide, and it suffered a precipitous drop after its first week.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been a box office and critical disappointment.

Quantumania also disappointed critics with the equal lowest Rotten Tomatoes score – 47 per cent, tied with Eternals – in a franchise that has enjoyed generally favourable critical acclaim.

Marvel is being plagued by questions of fatigue after 30 movies and eight streaming series in 15 years. The studio has been releasing projects at a breakneck pace, especially in the past two years in the post-Avengers: Endgame era as it moved into a new saga of storytelling.

In Marvel’s “Phase Four”, which spanned two years, it released seven movies and eight streaming series, as well as two one-off streaming specials. It’s a marked increase from the studio’s “Phase Three”, which spanned four years, Marvel released 11 movies.

And Marvel is not immune to the challenges faced by the wider entertainment industry, which is under pressure from global economic issues such as recession and lower discretionary spending from consumers hit by a cost-of-living crises.

Disney has committed to cutting $US5.5 billion in costs, as chief executive Bob Iger sought to shore up its financial position.

Kevin Feige leads Marvel Studios. Picture: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

Iger said during the company’s most recent results that Disney needed to be “better at curating” franchise projects. He added, “We want the quality on the screen, but we have to look at what they cost us”.

Soon after, Feige flagged Marvel will slow down its relentless pace and release fewer movies and streaming series in a year. He framed it as wanting to ensure each title had enough breathing space.

“We want Marvel Studios and MCU projects to really stand out and stand above, so people will see that as we get further into phases five six. The pace at which we’re putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine,” he told EW.

At the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, Feige outlined six Disney+ shows for 2023 but The Hollywood Reporter sources in February suggested this could be back to as few as two.

Marvel Studio movies have made more than $US28 billion at the box office. Avengers: Endgame remains the worldwide second-highest grossing movie of all time, sitting in between two Avatar movies.

Originally published as Marvel reeling from sudden departure of key executive