Inside Victoria Alonso’s Shocking Exit From Marvel Studios - Variety

The shakeup came as a surprise to many in show business and within the vast Marvel comic book fandom (a community with a prominent online presence and an in-person significance, at the many multiplexes where the studio releases its films).

Alonso’s dismissal has raised numerous questions about behind-the-scenes workings at the prized content engine, and with them, another unfavorable news cycle as Disney CEO Bob Iger attempts to stabilize its parent company amid economic unrest.

Simultaneously, she worked to become a brand on her own – a rare openly LGBTQ person and woman of color in a visible leadership role, known for her fiery passion and outspokenness over diversity and inclusion in Marvel’s storytelling.

She has been honored by media watchdogs and visual effects communities alike and is about to publish a memoir about her corporate ascent, the aptly titled “Possibility Is Your Superpower” (which is still set for release at the Disney book label Hyperion Avenue).

Numerous sources familiar with Marvel pointed to the tremendous pressure that the unit has been under over the past few years to deliver compelling content, not just to theaters, but also in the form of new streaming shows intended to bolster Disney+.

Still, the drumbeat that Something Is Rotten in the State of Marvel Studios only grew louder with the release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a film that finished shooting over a year before it was due in theaters and still weathered repeated criticism for “generic” visual effects that looked like “CGI glop” and were “very flat and cruddy-looking.” Even more critical: The movie has grossed $463 million globally to date, the worst performance of the “Ant-Man” franchise and a figure that means that it will struggle to break even in its theatrical window.