Disney Lays Off Hundreds of Employees In Its TV and Film Divisions

You don't say.

Disney is cutting hundreds of employees across several TV and film teams as the company focuses on expanding its streaming services.

Employees in the marketing for film and television, as well as TV publicity, casting and development, and corporate financial operations will be impacted by the cuts, a spokesperson for Disney told FOX Business.

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It comes after Disney's ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks announced plans to lay off just under 200 employees in March.

Those cuts represented nearly 6% of the total ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks workforce, and the majority of the impacted staffers are from ABC News, according to a source with knowledge of the headcount reduction.
Disney's Bob Iger.

Crowds at Disney World were small over Memorial Day weekend. Universal's Epic Universe just opened and is making a splash. (Link replaced with a current story.)

Meanwhile, Disney just screened the Fantastic Four for the public, I think at a Long Beach theater.

They understand they have another bomb on their hands and that this is pretty much the end of the M-She-U. When the Fantastic Four fails, that will be three failures in a row, and there will be zero momentum or interest for the upcoming two part Avengers movies.

It's strange to do test screenings so close to the planned release date. Apparently they're attempting last-minute reshoots to change the ending of the movie.

Marvel Studios may have a problem on its hands. According to multiple sources, the most recent test screenings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps were held earlier this week in Los Angeles--and the reactions are mixed. Though it's still in the post-production phase, initial viewer feedback suggests the reboot might not be the triumphant return for Marvel's First Family that Kevin Feige was hoping for.

Industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider shared details from a source who attended the screening, describing the film as "mid" and "meh," clarifying that it was "not that bad, but not that good, either." Perhaps more concerning are criticisms about "weak character development" and "bad CGI," the latter of which Sneider notes should improve in the coming weeks as visual effects are finalized.

"In general, Marvel doesn't do public test screenings unless they're worried," Sneider wrote. "That was the case with Eternals, The Marvels, Quantumania, and Brave New World."

While Sneider initially reported that Marvel was high on the project internally, another unnamed source reportedly described the film as "a mess" and "a huge problem movie"--echoing language that was once used to describe The Marvels before its disastrous release.

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ViewerAnon described the overall response as "'okay,' but not a big sample size," adding that "a couple people have said the first act's shaky but it gets better once Galactus shows up." They also noted that the version screened was "very unfinished," with only about 25% of VFX completed--something that could certainly skew audience reactions.

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While the film isn't eliciting the kind of extreme reactions being reported from Superman test screenings, the fact that Marvel felt the need to hold a public test run suggests some internal anxiety. The studio hasn't had a runaway hit since Deadpool & Wolverine, and with Bob Iger reportedly disappointed in the 2026 release slate, The Fantastic Four was expected to anchor the brand moving forward alongside the upcoming X-Men reboot.

Woke reviewer Grace Randolph heard from people who saw the movie, and they report that the M-She-U is back in full force. (Of course.) Even though she's super-woke and stupid and hates the term "The M-She-U," she says she has no choice but to report that Disney is once again going full M-She-U and giving haters (like me) a reason to bash the film. Apparently, Galactus is defeated by the gender-swapped female Silver Surfer and Sue Storm (with the help of her newborn baby Franklin). They just didn't feel like giving the three male members of the Fantastic Four a meaningful role in the resolution of the plot.

Meanwhile, Dr. Who -- which is now funded by Disney, because of course it is -- just posted its worst ratings in history and is now on "hiatus" with no future seasons planned. In other words, it's cancelled, but the BBC won't come right out and say so because they don't want to give "the CHUDs" the win. So the official story going forward will be that Dr. Who, like Rion Johnson's Star Wars trilogy, is still "in development," forever.

Note that the show used to get 7, 8, 9 or even ten million viewers in the UK. Now it barely gets two million for even its biggest shows (the first episode of a season, the last episode, and the Christmas special wintertime holiday episode).

Dr. Who could not sign anyone for the gay black doctor to regenerate into because, of course, the show is cancelled, and you can't sign an actor when you have literally zero dollars of budget to pay him.

So to avoid the embarrassment of having a regeneration scene where the Doctor regenerates into a TV test pattern, they brought back an actress from early in the show, Billie Piper, as the Doctor's "new" form.

This had been rumored as the solution to their dilemma for months.

Bringing back another nostalgia-hit actress is just a desperate last-gasp attempt to stir fan interest, which is near-zero. And of course they're not actually committing to bringing Billie Piper in as the new Doctor. They can't; they have zero dollars to pay a contract. They just hired her to do a quick cameo and say, literally, "Oh, hello" as her face appeared mid-regeneration.

Their plan is this: If they ever get renewed, they'll just claim that the Doctor "remembered" Billie Piper's face so it appeared briefly during his regeneration into someone else.

But they won't get renewed. Doctor Who is dead, forever, and good riddance.

Star Whovian @StarWhovian

BREAKING

The BBC are worried about how they're going to continue Doctor Who.

Billie Piper filmed her scene only a few weeks ago as a favour to RTD, who wanted a regeneration cliffhanger as a last-ditch attempt to convince Disney to extend their partnership.

Fans are noting that the new actor playing the Doctor was credited as "The Doctor" in the credits of the episode he first appeared in, whereas Billie Piper is credited as... no one in particular.

Woke has claimed another IP. Another billion-dollar franchise on the bonfire of the woke.

posted by Ace at 04:34 PM

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