UPDATE: Victoria Alonso's lawyer, Patty Glaser, has issued a statement to Variety where she says, among other things, that Alonso did have Disney's "blessing" to work on Argentina, 1985, and claims the her client was "silenced" by the company. The original story continues below.
Last week, a major behind-the-scenes shakeup occurred at Marvel Studios with the departure of Victoria Alonso, who’d been one of the production company’s key executives since 2008’s Iron Man. While the initial reason for her exit wasn’t revealed, it was later reported that she was fired from Marvel Studios. Now a new piece of Marvel reporting states that Alonso’s firing had nothing to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but was instead tied to a different project.
Victoria Alonso was one of eight producers behind Argentina, 1985, the Argentine historical legal drama that was distributed by Amazon and was nominated for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards, although All Quiet in the Western Front emerged victorious in that category among the other 2023 Oscar winners. THR shared that Alonso “breached her contract several times” by working on Argentina, 1985, specifically a 2018 agreement that “stated employees would not work for competing studios.” While THR’s sources heard that Alonso did not receive permission to work on this non-Marvel movie, a report from Indiewire last month stated this wasn’t the case.
Regardless, because of her status in the Marvel Studios hierarchy, Disney was reportedly willing to give Victoria Alonso “dispensation” regarding her association with Argentina, 1985, although the Mouse House instructed her not to work on the movie any further, nor promote it. However, once the movie premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last September and was shown at more events, Alonso participated in screenings, Q&As, interviews and panels. Alonso even showed up at the Oscars red carpet not in connection with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which was nominated in five categories, but instead to talk about Argentina, 1985 alongside director Santiago Mitre.
A week after the Oscars aired, the situation is said to have come to “a head,” and this ultimately led to Victoria Alonso being fired. It also reportedly “rankled Disney executives” that Alonso was promoting Argentina, 1985 when she was keeping extra busy as Marvel Studios’ president of physical and postproduction, visual effects and animation production, specifically when it came to visual effects. If you follow the MCU news cycle, you’ve likely noticed criticism directed at the franchise’s VFX over the last year, most recently with the claim that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s VFX suffered because resources from that sequel and poured into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It’s also been repeatedly said that the subpar VFX of late are the result of overly long hours, immovable deadlines and “a lack of a singular vision,” among other things.
As of this writing, it hasn’t been announced who will take over Victoria Alonso’s duties at Marvel Studios, although THR revealed that some of these VFX vendors are currently working with producer Jen Underdahl for now. Whoever her successor ends up being, they’ll have to work quickly on forging a dynamic with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co-president Louis D’Esposito. It also remains to be seen where we’ll see Alonso pop up next in Hollywood, but we’ll let you know once that’s revealed.
Until then, use your Disney+ subscription to stream the Marvel movies in order and the platform’s original MCU programming, and keep visiting CinemaBlend for the latest news about upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows.
