Evangeline Lilly slams Disney, says AI is replacing artists who built the MCU

Actor Evangeline Lilly has criticised the recent Disney layoffs that affected a number of Marvel Studios staffers, including members of the studio’s visual development team.

In a memo on April 14, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro informed staff about the cuts, telling them that around 1,000 jobs were eliminated, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Lilly addressed the layoffs in an Instagram video posted on Wednesday and in the caption of the post.

She said she contacted Andy Park, Director of Visual Development at Marvel, after hearing about the cuts, and that he confirmed he had been let go. Lilly also said she was shocked that artists who helped shape Marvel characters were now "being replaced by AI", though it is not known whether Disney intends to use AI for such work.

Lilly said, "I reached out to my good friend Andy Park, who was the genius behind creating the original Wasp super-suit and the original Wasp concept drawings for the film Ant-Man and the Wasp, and just said, ‘Is this true? Is this really what’s happening?’" She added, "And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s true. I have been let go.’ And I can’t quite believe that, that Disney has let go of the artists who brought the Marvel Universe to life through their imagination and their genius."

Park, who is well known to Marvel fans, worked with the studio for nearly two decades, beginning with 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. He went on to contribute to most of the studio’s major MCU projects, including Avengers: Endgame, and also worked on Avengers: Doomsday.

Lilly said she was shocked "that the people who invented these characters, who designed them in the first place, are now being replaced by AI". She continued, "AI that will take their designs and take what those artists created and use it to create iterations of that."

In the caption of her post, Lilly directly tagged Disney’s Instagram account and wrote, "SHAME ON YOU for turning your back on the people who built the power you are now using to throw them away." She also wrote, "Where are the laws that REMOVE all human art from the AI bank?!?! 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," before adding, "California lawmakers, where are you?!?!? (sic)"

Lilly joined the MCU in 2015 as Hope van Dyne, also known as the Wasp, in Ant-Man. She returned in Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018, Quantumania in 2023 and also appeared in Avengers: Endgame.

In 2024, Lilly said on social media that she was stepping away from acting. She is not part of the cast list for Doomsday, releasing in December, though her Quantumania co-stars Paul Rudd and Kathryn Newton will appear in the film.

Lilly’s remarks came in response to the Disney layoffs that affected Marvel Studios staff, including Park, and focused on the exit of artists she said had helped bring the MCU to life, as well as her concerns about the possible use of AI in creative work.