Disney Settles with Victoria Alonso

Victoria Alonso just scored a nice severance package. Deadline exclusively reports that Disney has settled the pending lawsuit with the Marvel producer, whom they fired a month ago. The details of the settlement are being kept confidential, but Deadline has heard that Alonso is getting “a multimillion-dollar financial compensation.” Alonso was let go without a reason being publicly made, but a few days later, she hired a lawyer, and both sides gave a different story. Through her lawyer, Alonso claimed she was fired for standing up to Disney over various political causes, including pushing Bob Chapek to take on Florida governor Ron DeSantis over the Parental Rights in Education Bill. She also says she refused to do something she called “reprehensible,” which is rumored to be removing gay pride flags in San Francisco store windows for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s Kuwaiti release. Disney countered that she’d repeatedly breached her contract in producing and promoting a movie she made with Amazon. Alonso promised a fight, but it looks like that won’t happen now.

To me, this looks like Disney is paying her off to keep her quiet. If Alonso had breached her contract as egregiously and repeatedly as Disney says she did, they shouldn’t have much trouble prevailing in court. Assuming their claim is true (and I think it probably is, even if it’s not the sole reason she was fired), there must be another reason for them to settle with Alonso. The one I find most likely is that they don’t want her airing any dirty laundry. I don’t know what that could be, but if Disney is handing her a multimillion-dollar payoff, it’s something they don’t want out there, especially when they’re reeling from bombs, bad press, and the trailer for The Marvels. The other possibility is that, with all these movies tanking and the shareholders being less than thrilled with Bob Iger and his Custer-like charge into the woke battlefield, they don’t want to spend money on a long, drawn-out lawsuit. The problem with that scenario is that they’re paying her a lot of money – more than a trial would probably cost them. I think they need to shut her up before she embarrasses them, and considering the money they’re throwing her way, she must really have the goods.