Pixar Layoffs Include ‘Lightyear’ Director and Producer

The shocking cuts continue. The Walt Disney Company has now laid off Angus MacLane, director and producer of Pixar’s Lightyear, as part of its plan to eliminate 7,000 employees. Pixar has just confirmed the layoff to AWN. These are the first layoffs at the venerable animation studio since a 5% reduction in 2013.

MacLane, a fixture at Pixar for nearly 30 years, was part of the Senior Creative Team for Coco, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4. The layoffs, reportedly totaling 75 Pixar employees, also includes longtime employee Galyn Susman, who produced Lightyear alongside MacLane and who also famously saved the entirety of Toy Story 2 from deletion during production with a partial copy she’d taken home.

Susman’s superhero moment was first revealed last year in a tweet: ‘Someone at Pixar deleted all of Toy Story 2 and the backup hadn’t worked for a month, and the only reason we saw that movie was b/c someone on maternity leave had a copy of it on her home computer. Her name is Galyn Susman and she is now the producer for the new Lightyear movie!’ 

MacLane and Susman’s departure conveniently coincides with the underwhelming box office performance of Lightyear, which lost the studio over $100 million, leading some to speculate at a potential correlation. Apparently, saving the Toy Story franchise doesn’t ensure a seat at the Disney table.

While Disney reportedly has now completed its layoffs in the U.S., cuts will continue internationally.

Cybersecurity specialist by day, investigative journalist by night.