The ruthless cull of content from Disney Plus in an effort to shave as many pennies off the budget as possible has taken on a new life in the face of actors and writers both striking, particularly as it pertains to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Company CEO Bob Iger effectively blamed streaming for the franchise’s downturn in quality – even though he was the one who pushed for such rapid expansion – while his comments on Marvel’s lack of presence in the episodic arena managed to exact a response from Clark Gregg, who headlined seven seasons of a TV show that Marvel fans the world over adore with all their hearts.
Whether it’s erasing movies from existence mere weeks after they premiered or axing televised originals and instantly making them impossible to watch anywhere else, the Mouse House is coming under heavy and sustained fire. Not even Marvel itself was safe, with Runaways recently being pulled from D+ and banished to purgatory, with Iger’s follow-up on the unimportance of the comic book company’s small screen efforts raising the ire of star Ariela Barer, as she revealed to The Hollywood Reporter.
“It doesn’t feel great to read those comments, it doesn’t feel great to read that your labor is not appreciated. I think that what we were asking for is incredibly realistic, and incredibly important. We’re asking for basic respect for our work.”
Iger has rapidly become public enemy number one as the WGA and SAG continue manning the picket lines, with his off-handed dismissal of the hard work put in my so many people rightly ruffling a lot of feathers across the industry.