Chris Claremont On Marvel’s Current "State Of Flux"

Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: chris claremont, los angeles, new york, west coast

Chris Claremont On Marvel's Current "State Of Flux"

Chris Claremont on Marvel Comics’ current "state of flux" as it prepares to move from New York to Burbank, California

Published Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:57:11 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Chris Claremont says Marvel Comics is in a state of flux as new management and major changes reshape the company.
• He warns Marvel’s New York staff face upheaval as the publisher prepares its move to Los Angeles.
• Claremont predicts a mass exodus at Marvel, with uncertainty growing over jobs, relocation, and December decisions.
• He frames Marvel’s relocation as a human disruption, not just strategy, for creators rooted in New York.

At Terrificon this month, former X-Men writer Chris Claremont offered one of the most candid public comments yet from a major creator about the upheaval currently gripping Marvel Comics. During the Uncanny X Writers Panel alongside Louise Simonson and Fabian Nicieza (moderated by Word Balloon's John Siuntres and available in full on YouTube), the conversation turned to the practical realities of working with Marvel today. Claremont did not hold back. "Everything at Marvel, like it was with DC a few years ago, is in a state of flux. And none of us, with a new management coming in, know exactly where it's going or exactly where it will end up. So this is… we're all facing a period of change."

He painted a vivid picture of what that change looks like on the ground for the people who still live and work in New York. "If I come up to you in the room and say, 'Hi, we're moving 3,000 miles away. You want to come? Because if you don't want to come, you're fired. If you do want to come, you might be fired, but we'll let you build a house and get centred in that area, and we'll keep our fingers crossed.' I don't see much enthusiasm. That's the point. None of us are in the military. We're not in a world where we're used to going from… "bounce bounce bounce"… from A to B to C. Most of us are in a world where we work for a company that's somewhere. We set down roots. We build our lives. If the company decides the situation has changed and they go somewhere else, that is not a small decision." Claremont added that "the next few months are going to be a mass exodus" and that a lot will depend on developments in "the second or third week of December." He noted that the people he knows in the industry, including himself, are based in New York.

The comments come roughly three weeks after Marvel formally announced the relocation of its comics and franchise publishing division from its longtime Midtown Manhattan offices to Burbank, California. The company is asking just over 100 New York-based employees to move by July 2027 so the publishing arm can sit alongside Marvel Studios and the broader Disney operation. The move coincides with a leadership transition: Steve Wacker has been named the new Editor-in-Chief, while longtime EIC C.B. Cebulski shifts to a new role based in Japan, overseeing Asia Originals and Manga. Claremont's remarks are among the first extended, unfiltered reactions from a high-profile creator who has spent decades tied to the New York comics scene. He framed the situation not as abstract corporate strategy but as a human disruption for people who have built lives, families, and careers around the old model. Marvel has described the relocation as a way to foster closer collaboration between comics, film, television, and animation. For the staffers being asked to uproot their lives, and for freelancers and veterans like Claremont who still orient themselves around the New York creative community, the practical and emotional costs are still being tallied. As Claremont put it near the end of the exchange: the undercurrent "is not as casual" as the jokes around it might suggest. "We'll see."

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