The departure of Ike Perlmutter from Disney: the end of an era at Marvel
We all knew that curves were coming at Disney this week. And it is that his intention to cut 5.5 billion dollars, among other measures, laying off 7,000 people, was going to come up against some of the franchises most loved by viewers.
The one who has fallen, at 80, is Ike Perlmutter, one of the vital people to understand the rise of superheroes and who until today presided over Marvel Entertainment, the division of the company in charge of toys and comics that did not affect Marvel Studios. Marvel Entertainment has been absorbed into Disney… And the knock on the table has been so certain that it has made many tremble.
Ike Matters to Me
Ike Perlmutter had his first relationship with Marvel in 1993, when he became one of its directors. After the bankruptcy of the company, he took control of it together with Avi Arad in 1997 and was the architect who sold it to Disney in 2009 for 4,000 million dollars, a figure that by now the mouse house has already recovered to spare.
It should be noted that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing franchise in film history: its 31 films released to date have already grossed more than 28 billion dollars. Perlmutter has been one of the most controversial figures in Marvel and there were many who had been saying for some time that he had gone too far.
Controversial figure
Key moments for him include trading James Rhodes for Don Cheadle because “blacks look alike” or refusing to make a female-led movie because she would sell fewer toys. Bob Iger has let him go, but that doesn’t mean Disney is going to stop publishing comics or selling Marvel toys, of course.
In fact, Dan Buckley, president of the already old division, will continue to report progress to Kevin Feige. For his part, Perlmutter probably won’t give any interviews (after all, he’s proud he’s never given one) and this is the end of a career devoted, ironically, to trying to save as much as possible.
The future of Marvel
The departure of Ike Perlmutter does not mean the end of Marvel. Dan Buckley will continue to lead the division and report to Kevin Feige. Despite the controversies surrounding Perlmutter, Marvel continues to be a major player in the entertainment industry, with its cinematic universe breaking box office records.
As fans of the Marvel franchise, we can only hope that the changes at Disney will not impact the quality of content that we have come to love.
