The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
MARVEL EXEC’S ABRUPT EXIT PUTS VFX WORK CONDITIONS IN FOCUS
For years, Victoria Alonso was part of the holy trinity — along with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and co-president Louis D’Esposito — who led the Marvel Cinematic Universe to ever-greater heights. Now, her abrupt March 17 firing has hit the Disneyowned studio on a quantum level.
Alonso’s work as a producer on Amazon Studios’ Argentina, 1985 is said to be at the center of the firing. According to Disney insiders, Alonso breached a 2018 agreement, violating the company’s standards of business conduct that stated employees would not work for competing studios. Alonso, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, did not receive permission to work on the historical drama — which earned an Oscar nomination for best international feature — but did it of her own volition, say insiders. When Disney found out about the project and the violation, her longtime service and veteran status engendered the company to give her a dispensation, on the condition she would not work on Argentina, 1985 anymore. She was also not to promote it or publicize it in any way. A new memo was signed, according to the insider. But she continued to publicize the film.
Notably, Alonso oversaw Marvel visual effects as president of physical and postproduction, visual effects and animation production — a role she assumed in 2021 that requires managing 68 employees and an army of vendors. There has been the general impression that artists have not been treated well by Marvel, attributed to factors including long hours, razor-sharp deadlines and lack of a singular vision. And, recently, there has been criticism of the quality of the work, particularly as Marvel produced films and TV shows at a pace unprecedented for the studio. One postproduction source says they have avoided working with Marvel because of Alonso’s reputation for being challenging. “You can only ask a person to stay until 1 a.m. working on VFX shots for so long before things start to break,” says this insider.
Disney and a rep for Alonso declined to comment. The VFX industry will be closely watching what follows. Marvel is one of the largest VFX clients because of the scope of its work — its tentpoles regularly feature in excess of 2,000 VFX shots, sometimes more than a whopping 3,000 per movie. Still, insiders acknowledge, whoever assumes Alonso’s duties will face similar challenges. “Whatever criticisms are being leveled against her, she’s not an island. Part of the problem is the aggressive release schedules,” notes one VFX veteran, referencing the unprecedented 18 films, TV shows and specials that Marvel released in 2021-22.
It is unclear who will take over for Alonso in the interim — at least some vendors now are working with VFX producer Jen Underdahl — as the studio focuses on completing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, due out May 3, and is in postproduction on season two of Loki and the Samuel L. Jackson series Secret Invasion. As one source notes, this could be the time for Marvel to start fresh and hire several people for the job, given the immense workload.