Former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac Perlmutter didn’t hold back in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that was published last week recounting how he warned Disney executives to not “get involved in politics” just before he was unceremoniously fired.

(Video Credit: Yahoo! Finance)

Perlmutter, 80, said in no uncertain terms that he had absolutely “no doubt” that he was terminated and his firing “was based on fundamental differences in business between my thinking and Disney leadership.”

Marvel Entertainment is a subsidiary of the House of Mouse and Perlmutter was the chairman of the company. Perlmutter was also a supporter and friend of former President Trump and is rarely photographed.

He told Disney executives to stay out of politics as the company and its CEO were fighting with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R).

“Don’t get involved in politics,” Perlmutter advised them. “You’re going to get hurt. It’s a no-win situation.”

(Video Credit: CNBC Television)

The now-former Marvel big-wig told the Wall Street Journal that he reached out to DeSantis and told him, “Ron, you’re right. Disney doesn’t have the right to get involved with politics.”

Disney contests the assertion that they fired Perlmutter but it is obvious to just about everyone that is what happened. A Disney representative said Tuesday that Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s general counsel, called Perlmutter and informed him that his job was being eliminated as part of the company’s broader effort to cut $5.5 billion from its content and administrative budgets and eliminate 7,000 jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“It was merely a convenient excuse to get rid of a longtime executive who dared to challenge the company’s way of doing business,” Perlmutter charged.

The Hollywood Reporter obtained a statement from the former Disney head that said he “long expected that my working relationship with Disney would end.”

Former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter said “fundamental differences” led Disney to fire him. In a rare interview, he discusses relationships with Disney CEO Robert Iger, activist investor Nelson Peltz and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. https://t.co/uzKHkjMK6o

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 5, 2023

“That it should come as a result of my trying to help Disney improve its business should sadden many shareholders as it does me, the company’s largest individual shareholder,” he stated.

Perlmutter, who owns approximately 30 million shares of Disney and is rumored to be worth about $3 billion, said he has tried for years to convince Disney to spend less on its Marvel Studios superhero movies, which he believes are too long and too expensive to produce.

“All they talk about is box office, box office,” he asserted. “I care about the bottom line. I don’t care how big the box office is. Only people in Hollywood talk about box office.”

“My ties to Disney are deep and extend more than 30 years,” the former executive noted. “The Marvel brand which I brought to the company in 2009 is now one of the strongest and most profitable business units in the company, as well as one of the best-known entertainment franchises in the world.”

In today's Wall Street Journal Isaac Perlmutter talks about how Disney focuses heavily on the box office of theatrical releases. $133 million of Alita's $405 million box office came from China and Disney can't count on China allowing access for future Disney movies. #AlitaSequel pic.twitter.com/DGEqvpPgev

— Charlie Schmidt (@CharlieSchmidt1) April 6, 2023

Perlmutter said that he “will continue to advocate for actions that secure Disney’s long-term financial health and allow a new generation of management to reverse the trend of falling shareholder equity and return the dividend to its prior level.”

He has been with Disney for over a decade after selling Marvel to Disney in 2009 for $4 billion, according to Deadline.

Perlmutter, who is a former Israeli commando, came to the United States in the 1960s penniless and built a fortune investing in troubled assets.

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