Marvel Studios has been one of the more consistent ones in the industry to churn out top-notch content, earning billions at the box office and keeping the powers above at Disney happy with all the moolah raked in. The past couple of years, however, has seen a few chinks appear in the seemingly impregnable armor of the studio, with its releases being accused of using clunky visual effects and poor CGI.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) had raised a lot of hopes pre-release but fell pretty flat after it hit theatres. The movie was a pivotal one in the Multiverse Saga, introducing Kang the Conqueror in MCU movies. It was, however, not well accepted, with fans calling out poor visual effects and CGI in the movie, and VFX artists claiming that the studio pressed them inhumanely for results, causing poor output.
Marvel takes aim at Victoria Alonso over VFX scandal
Someone had to pay for the VFX scandal allegations, and it seems like the studio has gone after Victoria Alonso, longtime president of physical production, post-production, VFX, and animation at Marvel Studios, stripping her of her job. The move to fire the top creative, who worked directly under chief creative officer Kevin Feige, came as a surprise to several within the MCU as well as fans and the industry outside it.
Alonso has been with the studio since 2006, a good three years before Disney showed interest in it and two years before Iron Man (2008) hit the theatres. Alonso has been a bastion of proclaiming diversity at Marvel, being one of the few openly-LGBTQ women of color in a chief executive position. However, there had been some complaints against her recently for singling out VFX artists to blame for the lack of progress of work at the studio. Whether they amounted to the eventual sacking of Alonso or not is unclear.
Internet comes together for Victoria Alonso
The reason behind firing Victoria Alonso is unclear, as neither Marvel nor her own representative has confirmed or denied anything. Be what may be the truth, the internet seems to have come together in unparalleled support for the VFX top boss.
Some went out of their way to castigate Marvel.
As many as three up-and-coming actors, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Variety that Alonso was a very supportive presence on set.
Others on Twitter agreed that even if she was part of the problem, she wasn’t the only one causing it.
Alonso’s exit will not affect Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) which is scheduled for a May release. Her replacement, however, will be tricky to find for Marvel, noting that she was responsible for a lot of work in several fields on MCU sets at once.
Source: Twitter
