Runaways Star Says Marvel Show Was Removed From Disney+ “Without Any Warning”

The actors union SAG-AFTRA officially went on strike this week, marking the first time that the union has done so in decades. The strike, as well as the already-ongoing strike of the Writers Guild of America, has brought a number of important issues in the entertainment industry to the forefront, including the dangers of AI likenesses and the complicated nature of residuals. According to the star of one of Marvel’s recent shows, the latter issue is already being felt in spades. Ariela Barer, who portrayed Gert Yorkes on Marvel’s Runaways, told The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s removal from streaming earlier this year occurred “without any warning,” and resulted in a loss of residuals for the cast. They also expressed a problem with some of the recent comments from studio executives, including Disney CEO Bob Iger calling the demands of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes “unrealistic.”

“It doesn’t feel great to read those comments, it doesn’t feel great to read that your labor is not appreciated,” Barer said. “I think that what we were asking for is incredibly realistic, and incredibly important. We’re asking for basic respect for our work.”

When Was Runaways Removed From Disney+?

Runaways, which was originally conceived for Hulu and debuted on the platform from 2017 through 2019, was completely scrubbed from both Disney+ and Hulu on May 27th of this year. Individual episodes of the show are still available to purchase on platforms like Apple.

“As we grow the business in terms of the global footprint, we realized that we made a lot of content that is not necessarily driving sub growth,” Bob Iger said around that time. “And we’re getting much more surgical about what it is we make. So as we look to reduce content spin, we’re looking to reduce it in a way that should not have any impact at all on SOPs. We believe that there’s an opportunity for us to focus more on real sub drivers.”

Why Are SAG-AFTRA Going on Strike?

In a statement tied to the announcement, SAG-AFTRA representatives revealed that the strike is commencing after four weeks of negotiations with the AMPTP, and an existing negotiation extension from June 30th to July 12th. Back in May, SAG-AFTRA’s national board unanimously agreed to send an authorization vote to members, with and 97.91 percent of members ultimately voting in favor to authorize.

“Yesterday our union celebrated the 90th anniversary of the incorporation of Screen Actors Guild,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator said during a press conference. “During our nearly century long existence we’ve fought for and achieved countless gains for working actors. Today, we embark on a new important chapter in our unions history. Earlier this morning, the SAG-AFTRA national board convened following four weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers in a meeting, because AMPTP remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on key issues essential to protecting the livelihoods of working actors and performers. SAG AFTRA as national board unanimously voted to issue a strike order against the studios and streamers.”