Report Sheds Light On Bankruptcy of Scottish ‘Eyes of Wakanda’ Studio Axis Studios

Scottish animation house Axis Studios, founded in 2000, which delivered the distinctive hand-painted look of Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda, has officially fallen into administration (the U.K. equivalent of a Chapter 11 filing in the U.S.), according to reporting from Forbes, which has published extensive new details about the studio’s downfall.

Although Eyes of Wakanda earned critical acclaim and topped Disney+’s streaming charts upon its release, Axis’s financial woes had been mounting for some time, and proved insurmountable. The studio had historically operated with a lean portfolio, taking on one or two large-scale contracts at a time, which left it vulnerable to cash-flow gaps between payments.

Axis’s financial collapse has been attributed to a combination of broad economic pressures, including reduced international commissions after the pandemic, production delays exacerbated by the 2023 Hollywood strikes, and rising operating costs. It’s a laundry list that will seem far too familiar to many in the European industry.

By mid-2024, Axis was reportedly unable to meet payroll obligations and had begun deferring contractor payments, and it was “deemed appropriate for an insolvency practitioner to be consulted in late June 2024.”

During its 25-year history, the company worked across film, television, and game projects, including top global IPs such as Halo, League of Legends, and Love, Death & Robots, but the studio’s downfall seems irreversible, given the overwhelming debt outlined in the Forbes piece.

Scotland’s animation scene stands a bit less vibrant today with the loss of one of its most high-profile players. Axis’s closure not only leaves a gap for artists and technicians who relied on the studio’s steady flow of high-end projects but also underscores the precarious economics of independent animation companies competing for blockbuster work from foreign players who operate at the whims of larger economic trends.