Evangeline Lilly, who portrayed Hope van Dyne / Wasp in four Marvel Cinematic Universe films, expressed outrage over Disney’s recent firings of Marvel employees.
Disney let go around 1,000 staffers in a recent purge, and the layoffs reportedly hit Marvel Studios especially hard.
Evangeline Lilly asks lawmakers to step in and stop AI from using artists’ creations
“Where are the laws that REMOVE all human art from the AI bank?!?” Evangeline Lilly wrote in the caption to a video she shared on social media about the layoffs. “Why do they get to steal our brilliance and use it to make executives rich while the artists responsible for feeding their robots go hungry?? Disgusting. California lawmakers… where are you?!?!?”
Lilly was especially upset that Marvel fired its Director of Visual Development, Andy Park, who had worked for the company for 16 years.
“I reached out to my good friend Andy Park, who was the genius behind creating the original Wasp super-suit and concept drawings, and I said, ‘Is this true? Is this really what’s happening?’” Lilly said in her video. “He said, ‘Yeah, it’s true.’ I can’t quite believe that… that Disney has let go of the artists who brought the Marvel Universe to life through their genius and that the people who invented these characters and who designed them are being replaced by AI. AI that will take their designs and take what they created and use it to create iterations of that. I am so sorry, Andy. I am so sorry to every one of the artists who were let go.”
Lilly thanked the Marvel Studios artists and blasted Disney for turning their back on them
“To the @marvelstudios artists who designed and brought to life the glory days of Marvel…I salute you 🫡. I was there. I know what you did. I know how passionately you worked round the clock to make magic happen. You are the magicians, no matter what the Wizards of our new Oz make it look like going forward. I will never forget,” Lilly added in her caption.
“@disney SHAME ON YOU for turning your back on the people who built the power you are now using to throw them away.”