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Disney reported to be laying off 1,000 employees

With many of the layoffs expected to hit the marketing department for the production giant.
Ben Lyons Senior Editor 9 April 2026

Hearing about entertainment companies laying off staff isn't surprising these days, as both the video game and film/TV businesses have been moving to reduce their workforces and otherwise cut costs. Not even Disney is safe from this trend.

As per Variety, it's reported that Disney is set to lay off around 1,000 employees, with this change seemingly set to affect the marketing department of the production giant for the most part.

Disney has yet to confirm or deny this news, but it should be said that even 1,000 employees is somewhat a drop in the ocean for Disney, who employs 231,000 full and part-time employees across the planet. What does seem to be the case is that this is one of the first moves from new CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took over from Bob Iger a few weeks ago on March 18.

The last major lay off round for Disney was back in 2023, where the entertainment behemoth decided to axe as many as 7,000 roles.

It's unclear what this means for Disney's production going forward, but if the layoffs mostly target marketing, it should have a lower impact on the quality and number of films, TV, and other entertainment products that Disney produces.

Senior Editor Ben was a Senior Editor at Gamereactor UK. When he wasn’t writing, editing or filming for Gamereactor, he could usually be found playing an FPS or getting lost in a sprawling RPG.
Full profile Gamereactor author since October 2020 · 18,577 published articles
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