Last week, news broke that Victoria Alonso, the executive who had served Marvel Studios for nearly two decades, had exited her post within the company. Alonso’s top-tier standing within Marvel meant this news came as a massive shock within the industry. Today, The Hollywood Reporter released a story detailing the reasons for Alonso’s sudden and surprising departure.
It appears her involvement with the Oscar-nominated drama Argentina, 1985 was the catalyst for her swift departure. Alonso was one of the eight producers of the international production that was distributed by Amazon. It is noted, however, that her involvement with the film at this level was a breach of contract – something which occurred multiple times. It’s reported that Alonso was warned repeatedly about her involvement with the production and its release, but her appearance at the Oscars last weekend on behalf of the film was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
According to insiders, her behaviour breached an agreement drawn up in 2018 which stated that stated employees would not work for competing studios, which was a violation of the company’s standards of business conduct. The report adds that sources stated Alonso didn’t ask for permission to work on Argentina, 1985 nor did she give notice but did the film of her own volition. When Disney discovered the depth of her involvement on the film, due to her length of service and her respect within the company, she was permitted the transgression on the condition she didn’t work on it any further, as well as not promoting or publicising the film.
Despite this, she appeared numerous times to promote the film publicly and even appeared at the Academy Awards as a representative of that film, not an executive producer of the multi-nominated Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The report added that Alonso’s job responsibilities meant she oversaw visual effects as president of physical and post-production, visual effects and animation production – a department which was stretched incredibly thin during the pandemic, and then beyond that, with the increase in Marvel productions for both theatrical and television release, with the output criticised for not meeting Marvel’s usual standards.
Alonso had been a long-time advocate for more diversity within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in particular striving for more female leading roles and more representation for the LGBTQ+ community. She spoke at length about the process during an interview with Collider’s Editor-in-Chief Steven Weintraub while promoting the home video release of Captain Marvel which was, at the time, the first MCU film to position a female actor (Brie Larson) in a leading role, as well as her desire to make the films feel less male-oriented.
Alonso’s career at Marvel Studios began in 2006, where she played a pivotal role in production until her exit earlier this month. She is listed as an executive producer, and her name will be listed as such on James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, the next film to be released by Marvel Studios.
You can view the trailer for Argentina, 1985 down below.
