00:00I can't quite believe that, that Disney have let go of the artists who brought the current Marvel Universe to
00:09life.
00:11Evangeline Lilly is speaking out after Disney's recent wave of layoffs impacted staff at Marvel Studios.
00:17The Ant-Man star took to social media this week voicing frustration after learning that longtime Marvel visual development artist
00:24Andy Park was among those let go.
00:26Disney CEO Josh DeMauro informed employees of the cuts in an April 14th memo, with the source telling The Hollywood
00:33Reporter that roughly 1,000 jobs were eliminated across the company.
00:37Marvel Studios was included in the layoffs, with members of its visual development team affected, including Park, a nearly 16
00:44-year veteran known to fans for his work designing iconic characters across the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
00:50Lilly said she reached out to Park directly after hearing the news.
00:54And just said, is this true? Is this really what's happening? And he said, yeah, it's true. I have been
01:01let go.
01:02Park's work with Marvel dates back to 2011's Captain America, The First Avenger, and Thor, and spans major titles including
01:10Avengers Endgame, along with contributions to the upcoming Avengers Doomsday.
01:14In her comments, Lilly also raised concerns about the growing role of artificial intelligence in creative fields, saying she was
01:21shocked that artists who helped originate these characters could be replaced.
01:25AI that will take their designs and take what those artists created and use it to create iterations of that.
01:35Tagging Disney directly, Lilly wrote, shame on you for turning your back on the people who built the power you
01:41are now using to throw them away.
01:43She continued, questioning protections for artists, writing in part, why do they get to steal our brilliance and use it
01:49to make executives rich while the artists responsible for feeding their robots go hungry?
01:54It's unclear whether Disney plans to incorporate AI into this type of creative work.
01:59The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Marvel Studios for comment.
02:02Lilly joined the MCU in 2015 as Hope Van Dyne, also known as the Wasp, appearing in Ant-Man, its
02:09sequels, and Avengers Endgame.
02:11For more updates on this story, be sure to head over to thehollywoodreporter.com.
02:15This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
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