Evangeline Lilly took to social media to publicly criticize Disney following recent layoffs that reportedly affected employees at Marvel Studios, including longtime creative contributor Andy Park.The actress, known for playing Hope van Dyne aka Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’, took to her Instagram account to express her anger after she came across the post. In a video post, Lilly confirmed reports that about 1,000 employees were being laid off across the company.She confirmed the news, saying: “I reached out to my dear friend Andy Park, who was the genius behind the creation of the original Wasp suit and the concept drawings, and said to him: ‘Is this true? Is this really what’s happening?
“He said, ‘Yes, that’s true,'” she added. I can’t quite believe that…that Disney has abandoned 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 artificial intelligence. AI that will take their designs and take what they’ve created and use it to create iterations of that. I’m so sorry, Andy. I am so sorry to every one of the artists who were let go.
“In a strongly worded comment accompanying the video, Lilly criticized the production company and its parent company for “turning your back on the people who built the power you are now using to get rid of them.”It also raised concerns about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the creative industries. “Where are the laws that remove all human art from the AI bank?!? Why can they steal our brilliance and use it to make CEOs rich while the artists responsible for feeding their robots starve?? Disgusting. California lawmakers… where are you?!?!?”Lily continued to pay tribute to Marvel’s creative community, writing: “To the @marvelstudios artists who created and brought the glory days of Marvel to life… I salute you. I was there. I know what you did. I know how passionate you are about working around the clock to make the magic happen. You are the wizards, no matter what makes it seem like our new Wizards of Oz are stepping up. I will never forget.”Lily first appeared in the MCU in 2015’s “Ant-Man” and went on to reprise her role in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Avengers: Endgame.” She was last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.