The House of Mouse’s layoffs has hit some of Disney’s biggest employees, including controversial Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter.
According to The New York Times, Isaac ‘Ike’ Perlmutter has been laid off by the entertainment conglomerate. The firing is reportedly part of an ongoing cost-cutting effort at the company for all of its major brands.
Pearlmutter, 80, was in charge of the consumer product sector of the Marvel brand. Run independently from Marvel Studios, the company is responsible for merchandising the comic book brand across multiple sectors.
However, for the past decade, Perlmutter has been seen as a mass distraction to the Marvel brand. The long-running executive was behind some of the biggest mistakes across Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios.
For example, Ike Pearlmutter was one of the main brains behind Marvel’s plans to bury the X-Men and Fantastic Four in favour of The Inhumans. This move also caused the MCU’s horrendous Inhumans TV series.
Perlmutter's actions also bled into mainline MCU projects. The Marvel CEO allegedly forced Marvel Studios to change the antagonist of Iron Man 3 to Aldrich Killian, removing Thor’s scenes from Age of Ultron and killing any plans for diversity across the MCU.
Furthermore, the executive was behind some of the MCU’s weirdest decisions. For example, as Perlmutter oversaw TV development for Marvel properties, the executive sold series such as Cloak and Dagger, The Runaways, Agent Carter and more across multiple TV channels and services.
Furthermore, the controversial Marvel CEO has been outed for bigotry numerous times throughout his career. Infamously, the executive allegedly told employees that no one would notice the recasting of James “Rhodey” Rhodes in Iron Man 2 from Terrance Howard to Don Cheadle because black people “look the same”. The executive has even been embroiled in a bribery trial to expedite the renewal of his gun license.
Alongside the ousting of Ike Perlmutter, Disney is combining Marvel Entertainment with the mainline Disney company. What effect this will have on the future of Marvel content and products is yet to be confirmed.
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!