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Marvel Comics is synonymous with New York City. Many of its most popular characters, like Spider-Man and Daredevil, call the city home. But now, the publisher has announced it’s leaving the Big Apple to join forces with the greater Marvel team in Burbank, California — and the ~100 employees who staff its publishing division have until July 2027 to decide whether they’ll follow it across the country.
The news landed at a town hall inside Marvel’s Midtown Manhattan office on Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter (1), which first reported the move and obtained the internal memo sent to staff afterward.
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“New York has played a huge part in who Marvel is as a company, and in the pages of our comics,” wrote Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of television, animation, comics and franchise, and David Abdo, the newly installed general manager of comics and franchise, in the companywide memo (1). “While our network of writers and artists is now an international operation, New York is still woven into our DNA and that will never change.”
The executives said they “sincerely hope [Marvel staffers] choose to continue that journey with us in California. We are committed to supporting every affected employee throughout this transition, which will take place over the next 12 months.”
Orientation sessions for the affected employees and their families begin next week.
Why Marvel is leaving New York after nine decades
The decision, per the memo, was months in the making, but there were a few key forces behind it — particularly real estate. Marvel’s lease at its Avenue of the Americas office is set to expire next year, THR reported (1), which forced a decision one way or another.
Leadership also wanted all of Marvel’s businesses under one roof. The company hasn’t operated that way since before Disney bought Marvel Entertainment for roughly $4 billion (2) in 2009, a deal that handed Disney more than 5,000 characters.
When new leadership came aboard in May, it audited where Marvel’s creators actually live — and it turns out the talent pool, which was once clustered in the New York tri-state area, is now more global. But among U.S.-based creators, there are now more of them in California than in New York.
