Today is decision day for Marvel Comics’ New York staff.
According to Bleeding Cool (Rich Johnston, Sep 15, 2026) and The Verge (Richard Lawler, Sep 15, 2026), more than 100 New York–based Marvel Comics and Franchise employees had until Tuesday, September 15, 2026 to accept a relocation package to Burbank, California — home of Marvel Studios and Disney — or take a redundancy / exit package and leave their New York roles.
The deadline lands roughly two months after a Midtown town hall where the company laid out the plan. Bleeding Cool reports the physical move remains on track to finish by July 2027, ending nearly 90 years of Marvel publishing operations in the city where the company was founded. The Verge similarly frames the shift as bringing comics closer to the MCU side of the house under Disney’s Burbank campus.
Why Burbank, and why now
Bleeding Cool’s reporting ties the relocation to the upcoming expiration of Marvel’s lease on its Avenue of the Americas offices and a deliberate push to put comics under the same roof as Marvel Studios and parent Disney. An internal memo circulated after the July town hall — attributed by Bleeding Cool to executives Brad Winderbaum (Head of Television, Animation, Comics, and Franchise) and David Abdo (General Manager: Comics And Franchise) — said the move “will position the team beside our broader creative organisation and create opportunities for collaboration across both Marvel and Disney,” with a stated goal “to continue to make the best comic books in the business.”
Orientation sessions for relocating staff and their families began shortly after the announcement, Bleeding Cool notes, with Marvel emphasizing support through a year-long transition. The practical binary remains blunt: move to Los Angeles, or leave the company.
Who stays, who goes — and leadership in flux
Coverage consistently stresses that the offer lands differently depending on life stage. Bleeding Cool says younger staff without deep New York ties may find the deal attractive, while employees with families, kids, or a clear preference for the East Coast over the West Coast are far less likely to bite. Artist Humberto Ramos posted on X that today was “a crucial day for everyone at @MarvelComicsHQ, offering love and respect to colleagues — a public reminder of how personal the choice feels inside the building.
Leadership context also shifted around the relocation plan. Bleeding Cool and The Verge both report that Stephen Wacker is now Editor-in-Chief, while former EIC C.B. Cebulski has relocated to Japan as Editor of Asia Originals, focusing on Marvels original graphic fiction and manga projects (Bleeding Cool also notes a brief Korea stop tied to that Asia push). The Verge describes the Burbank move as bringing “the bits of the MCU closer together” under Wacker’s new tenure.
What this means for the House of Ideas
If the July 2027 target holds, Marvel Comics will no longer be a Midtown Manhattan publishing operation in the way fans and freelancers have known it for generations. The comics line continues; the geography does not. Decision day does not invent the destination — Burbank was already the plan — but it does lock in who rides that train and who walks away from New York roles.
As of writing (evening September 15, 2026, America/Chicago), primary confirmation of the Sept 15 decision deadline, the 100-plus employee scope, the July-next-year move target, lease/collaboration rationale, and Wacker / Cebulski leadership notes comes from Bleeding Cool and The Verge’s same-day coverage. Individual acceptance rates and named departures beyond those leadership notes were not detailed in those reports at write time.
Sources: Bleeding Cool — Rich Johnston, Sep 15, 2026: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/today-marvel-staff-decide-to-move-from-new-york-to-los-angeles-or-not/; The Verge — Richard Lawler, Sep 15, 2026: https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/995765/marvel-comic-mcu-move-nyc-burbank
