Marvel exec Ike Perlmutter ousted by Disney after years of frustration

The Walt Disney Company confirmed that Isaac Perlmutter has been fired as the reclusive chief executive officer of Marvel Entertainment for three decades.

The firing comes as Disney is generally downsizing and cost-cutting to meet the macroeconomic moment — but for many, it’s long overdue, after years of Perlmutter’s attempts at cut-throat corporate dealing and conspicuous political activism.

Perlmutter unsuccessfully advocated for Disney execs to allow Nelson Peltz (a well-known activist investor) to join the board. But this kind of aggressive deal brokering has defined Perlmutter’s involvement with Marvel since it began.

Perlmutter was a part of the Marvel universe in the 1990s when Toy Biz, his newly acquired company, obtained licenses for Marvel characters. This put Toy Biz in a position to partially acquire Marvel Entertainment, and when the latter’s late 1990s bankruptcy turned into a battle for ownership, Perlmutter and fellow Toy Biz exec Avi Arad emerged victorious, merging Toy Biz and Marvel Entertainment into Marvel Enterprises.

Perlmutter rose to CEO of Marvel Entertainment in 2005, a title he retained even as he sold the company to Disney in 2009, just as Marvel Entertainment’s film production subsidiary, Marvel Studios, was ramping up its in-house franchise. Perlmutter was alleged to have micromanaged Marvel Studios. He demanded both cost cutting as well as loyalty, which led to clashes between Perlmutter and Kevin Feige, head of MCU.

Perlmutter attempted to fire Feige in 2015. Disney executive Bob Iger was even aware of the situation and quickly reorganized Marvel Studios under Walt Disney Studios. Perlmutter was moved farther from any creative power over Marvel holdings in 2019, when an organizational shakeup moved Marvel Television (home of all of Marvel’s non-Disney Plus TV series, like DaredevilAnd SHIELD Agents) under the Marvel Studios umbrella, and set Marvel Entertainment’s president Dan Buckley as reporting to Kevin Feige alone in matters of “creative and editorial publishing.”

Today, Buckley is still the president of Marvel Entertainment and reports to Kevin Feige.

“Mr. Perlmutter’s zealousness for corporate frugality in service of profit is well known in the entertainment business,” the New York Times notes. “In one particularly vivid example, he used to pluck paper clips out of garbage cans at Marvel offices for reuse. Marvel employees still speak of the moment he suggested potato chips to cut catering costs at movie premieres. At least 20 cameras were installed by Mr. Perlmutter to closely watch Marvel office activities. Disney ripped them out several years ago.”

Perlmutter’s political leanings are also well-known and tinged to the sordid. Between Perlmutter and his wife Laura, they have donated the better part of one million dollars to funds related to the election of former president Donald Trump, and Perlmutter is a regular figure at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. In 2018, ProPublica reported findings that Perlmutter, his personal physician Bruce Moskowitz, and Moskowitz’s squash partner — none of whom had ever served in the US government or military — had been given unofficial free reign by Mr. Trump to manage the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Perlmutter was a shy CEO who is now well known among Marvel Comics fan. Perlmutter has often been mentioned as a backstop for diversification of Marvel’s superhero ranks. This includes LGBTQ+ representation.