Another day, another controversy for Marvel and Disney. After the dismissal of Victoria Alonso, is now Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, president of Marvel Entertainment, who bids farewell to the ranks of the mouse house. Fortunately, he does so on better terms than Alonso, and with quite clear reasons on the part of the company.
In accordance with The New York Times, medium that gave the exclusive, Perlmutter learned of his dismissal on the afternoon of March 28. He was in charge of selling Marvel to Disney in 2009, and from there, he focused on Marvel’s consumer-focused division. As this is not part of the unit in charge of the production of movies and series, and it was also redundant for future plans, Disney decided to mix it with other parts of the company to avoid various expenses. One of them, Ike’s salary.
Unfortunately, Perlmutter wasn’t the only one fired. Disney also “let go” of Rob Steffens, co-chairman of Marvel Entertainment. The reason for all these layoffs is increase Disney’s financial results and position the company for growth in other ways. Since last March 27, Disney began the process to eliminate 7,000 jobs, around 4% of its global total. In the end, it is expected that more than $5.5 billion dollars will be saved with these types of measures.
Who is Ike Perlmutter?
Since the 1990s, the former president of Marvel Entertainment began to gain control over the company. He managed to get hold of it thanks to the purchase of a toy company at the beginning of that decade. It increased its profits thanks to the sale of licenses to characters such as the X-Men and Spider-Man to other studios. Many described him as a hot-tempered and relentless executive. In addition, he is a friend of former President Donald Trump. He donated large amounts of money to him for campaign expenses and projects involving war veterans.
As time went on, his grip on Marvel waned. He stopped having any interference in the MCU tapes since 2015, when he had a conflict with Kevin Feige over the budget of Doctor Strange. From that moment on, his time at Disney and Marvel was full of controversy. It was recently revealed that Ike Perlmutter wanted to kick Kevin Feige out of Marvel Studios, but Bob Iger stopped him and gradually downplayed his work. His activities were relegated to the area of comics, video game licenses, entertainment shows and consumer products.
In the past year, he has drawn attention for his insistence that Nelson Peltz, an investor friend, join Disney’s board of directors. His request was rejected on numerous occasions. For many, that was a suspicious attitude, and he gave rise to speculation that his days at the company were numbered. Unfortunately, it turned out to be true.
Juan Jose Cruz I am one of those who always defended Robert Pattinson as Batman and can see the same movie in the theater up to 7 times. My guilty pleasure? Low budget horror movie.
