Evangeline Lilly has publicly criticized The Walt Disney Company for its latest round of Marvel layoffs, accusing the studio of discarding the artists who built its empire and replacing them with artificial intelligence.
The actress, who played Hope van Dyne, the Wasp, in four Marvel films, took to Instagram to express his anger after learning that Marvel’s visual development department had been among the hardest hit by company-wide cuts that reduced Disney’s workforce by about eight percent.
“Shame on you for turning your back on the people who built the power you are now using to throw them away,” he wrote in his caption.
In the accompanying video, Lilly explained that she had communicated directly with Andy Park, the artist who designed the Wasp suit she wore in the original 2015 film. Ant Man film, to confirm what he had seen reported. He confirmed that he had been fired.
“I can’t believe Disney let go of the artists who brought the current Marvel Universe to life through their imagination and genius,” he said.
“That the people who invented these characters in the first place, who designed them in the first place, are now being replaced by AI. An AI that will take their designs and take what those artists created and use it to create iterations of that.”
She was direct about her stance on the issue.
“I’m so sorry, Andy, and I’m so sorry for every single artist who was fired among the 1,000 artists Disney fired, and particularly for the entire Marvel team, who have been deemed obsolete now after building the Marvel empire.”
He added that the work these artists produced “are human creations and should not be stolen by tech giants so their robots can replicate them. I think it’s disgusting and horrible, and I support all the artists and Andy.”
The cuts at Marvel affected most of its departments, including film and television production, comics, franchises, finance, legal and visual development, with the latter being particularly hard hit, following a smaller round of layoffs in 2024.
