Marvel Studios: New Details From Firing VFX Head

Some new details have emerged from Marvel Studios firing Victoria Alonso. The MCU’s head VFX executive stepped away from the company amid controversy about her involvement with another studio’s projects. While speculation that it had something to do with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s reception, it seems that isn’t really the case according to MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. In Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards’s account of Marvel Studios lore, the decision to fire the prominent executive came because of her refusal to remove some pride symbols from Quantumania. Co-president Louis D’Esposito ended up removing the moments in question despite Alonso’s protests.

The book reads, “Alonso had broken one of Feige’s cardinal rules: don’t speak out publicly against the company. A source close to the matter said that later that year Feige suggested to Alonso that she had outgrown her role at Marvel. He reportedly cautioned her to “keep her head down’ and ‘do the work.’”

“In early 2023, Alonso refused to act on Marvel Studios’ request to remove LGBTQ pride symbols from Quantumania for foreign markets,” the account continues. “The atmosphere at the studio was tense: the department of ‘yes’ had said ‘no.’ D’Esposito outsourced the VFX work anyway, an act Alonso regarded as a betrayal.”

There’s A Ton Riding on Kang The Conqueror

Among the other topics surrounding Marvel Studios right now is how much the franchise is banking on Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. During an episode of The Big Picture Podcast, the MCU book’s writer Joanna Robinson talked about the impact of Majors’ performances durign Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The strength of those two appearances alone had the Marvel Studios braintrust trying to establish the plans for this phase of the MCU around Kang. Now, with Majors’s legal situation, the path forward has been a bit muddied. His trial is just really getting going and there’s question of whether or not to recast the character preemptively.

Robinson explained, “I was told by someone who works for Marvel, it was not the plan to make Kang the center of everything until they saw the dailies from Quantumania and after his performance in Loki, which was so strong they were like, ‘This is it. This is our way forward. We’ve lost our varsity hero team, but let’s set up around this guy Kang and this performer that so many people are reacting to.’

Marvel Studios “Redirecting” After Endgame

The Multiverse Saga has been an adjustment period for some of the Marvel audiences. Letting go of The Infinity Saga and moving on presented challenges. But, the directors of Avengers: Endgame think that people should have some faith. Joe and Anthony Russo spoke to Radio Times about Marvel in Phase 4 and beyond. They’re acknowledging a more complex story. But, Joe Russo also told the outlet that there’s no other place in Hollywood that would have earned that trust as they navigate the rest of the road towards Avengers: Secret Wars.

“There’s nobody better at telling stories than Kevin Feige right now. If you’re going to bet on anybody, you bet on him,” Russo told RadioTimes. “I think that the type of story that unfolded in the phases that we worked on [was] a very specific kind of story that wrapped itself up in those phases and now it’s time for a new story, and I think that’s the direction that Marvel’s headed in. They’re telling you a very different story, a very new story and I think the audience just needs to be patient with the redirection because you can’t keep telling the same story over and over or you lose the audience.”

Are you surprised by these new details? Let us know in the comments down below!