VFX artists are speaking out against Marvel, with many refusing to ever work with the entertainment giant again. This comes as artists share accounts of unworkable deadlines and immense pressure leading to stress and unsatisfactory final products. Many have requested to never be put on a Marvel project again, saying that the studio has the "worst VFX management out there".
These allegations have been made on the subreddit r/VFX, with artists across the industry sharing their negative experiences with the company. Almost no one in the subreddit has a good word to say about the employer, with many saying that the money and star-power aren't worth tolerating such poor working conditions.
In a thread titled "I am quite frankly sick and tired of working on Marvel shows", Reddit user Independent-Ad419 expressed their frustration with the studio. "Marvel has probably the worst methodology of production and VFX management out there", they write. "They can never fix the look for the show before more than half the allocated time for the show is over. The artists working on Marvel shows are definitely not paid equivalent to the amount of work they put in."
Others in the replies are quick to agree. "On Thor they ask for a complete mini-sequence 2 or 3 weeks before deadline", says samvfx2015.
Mickeym00m00's account is much the same: "I request to not work on [Marvel] movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, they're becoming our biggest client. They expect a smorgasbord of options so they can change their mind three more times."
Those who haven't been able to avoid working with Marvel confirm that it hasn't improved in recent years. "I'm on almost three years straight of Marvel. Welcome to the seventh level of hell". Another user shares that their time at Marvel has been a "black hole of sleep deprivation and eating bad".
Another thread from three months ago contains even more damning accounts of what it's like to work with Marvel. These allegations were shared when another VFX artist was disappointed to lose out on the opportunity to work with Marvel - something their industry peers reassured them was no great loss.
-(1).jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
"I am on my third Marvel project in a row and literally just woke up 5:30 am on a Saturday with stress going 'I don't want to do this anymore'", writes RANDVR. "It's 6 am now and I am making a reel to apply someplace that has projects other than Marvel because I can't do this anymore."
Mickeym00m00 shared a particularly shocking account of their time working with the studio: "Marvel has seen grown men punch walls and throw monitors from stress. I broke down a couple of times and have seen the strain it can put on marriages. But hey the $$ was fantastic. Fuck Marvel as a client, the credit name is not fucking worth it."
Raistlinuk agrees: "It took me over six months to recover from WandaVision's crunch. It’s not worth it. Not when there’s better run projects that look just as good out there."
Given how recent some of these projects are, it's unlikely that there's been a dramatic change in the past few months. It remains to be seen if Marvel addresses these criticisms as they become widely shared online.