By Albert Ching, Newsarama Staff Writer
The in-house marketing department of Marvel Studios has been let go by parent company Disney, according to a report on Deadline.com.
The article states that three individuals in total were let go on Monday — Dana Precious, EVP of Worldwide Marketing, Jeffrey Stewart, VP of Worldwide Marketing and Jodi Miller, Manager of Worldwide Marketing — representing the effective entirety of Marvel’s west-coast marketing department. Marvel’s New York City-based publishing operations are unaffected by the move.
Deadline reports that the “official” reason for the firings is so Disney can handle the releases of The Avengers and beyond by themselves. The news was potentially inevitable, the article posits, as the positions essentially became redundant when Disney purchased Marvel in 2009. This summer’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were both distributed by Paramount.
The post further clarifies that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is still in charge, and quotes insiders saying that Precious and her team “were not well-loved” by Disney and Marvel execs, with the implication that the cuts were also performance-based.