Fired Disney Executive Threatens Lawsuit, Claims “Serious Consequences” For Firing

Last month, during Disney’s quarterly earnings calls, CEO Bob Iger announced that, while the company was doing well, they still needed to cut costs. Iger said that he and CFO Christine McCarthy were looking to cut a total of $5.5 billion from the budget. In order to do that, they needed to lay off thousands of Cast Members. On March 27, we learned that some of the layoffs would be coming this week. However, another big savings came in a way no one saw coming. Last week, Disney announced that Marvel executive Victoria Alonso had been fired.

Alonso’s firing was startling, as she had been with Marvel since 2006, well before they were purchased by Disney. Alonso was one of the key players in rocketing the Marvel Cinematic Universe to one of the most successful franchises in history. Not long after her firing was announced, it was reported that Alonso was blindsided by the firing. However, Disney said that it had no choice but to let Alonso go because she repeatedly breached her contract. Alonso was a producer on the Oscar-nominated film, Argentina, 1985, which was made by Amazon. Alonso’s contract said she was not allowed to work with another studio.

Alonso’s rep adamantly refuted those claims, saying that she asked Disney if she could work on the film. Now, it looks like Alonso is gearing up to fight the studio giant. According to new reports, Alonso is considering pursuing legal action against Disney. She is also ready to share everything she knows — most likely the bad — about the company.

Per a report from Deadline Hollywood:

In a statement released Friday for the now former  President, Physical and Postproduction, VFX and Animation Production for Marvel Studios, the litigator, who is already taking Disney-owned LucasFilm to court for the canning of Star Wars TV series The Acolyte EP Karyn McCarthy, said:

The idea that Victoria was fired over a handful of press interviews relating to a personal passion project about human rights and democracy that was nominated for an Oscar and which she got Disney’s blessing to work on is absolutely ridiculous. Victoria, a gay Latina who had the courage to criticize Disney, was silenced. Then she was terminated when she refused to do something she believed was reprehensible. Disney and Marvel made a really poor decision that will have serious consequences. There is a lot more to this story and Victoria will be telling it shortly—in one forum or another.

However, Disney did not sit back and let Alonso run the story. Not long after Ms. Alonso’s attorney released a statement, Disney came back with a statement of its own.

“It’s unfortunate that Victoria is sharing a narrative that leaves out several key factors concerning her departure, including an indisputable breach of contract and a direct violation of company policy,” a Disney spokesperson told Deadline this evening. “We will continue to wish her the best for the future and thank her for her numerous contributions to the studio.”

According to Alonso’s attorney, she was fired for openly criticizing The Walt Disney Company. The criticism happened when ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek was getting criticized for not speaking out against Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill. At first, Chapek deemed the bill “irrelevant” to Disney, but, after a ton of backlash, he spoke out against it. Alonso — who is gay — spoke against it from the beginning.