If you’re in the business of studying the behind-the-scenes workings of Hollywood juggernaut Marvel Entertainment, there’s usually one name that crops up over and over: baseball-cap enthusiast and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. That’s because, just like a shadowy comic-book big bad, the real power player behind Marvel likes to keep a low profile. Throughout Marvel’s meteoric pop-culture rise, Feige has reported to Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, the rarely seen, barely photographed billionaire C.E.O. of Marvel Entertainment. But those days are reportedly over. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story that Feige will no longer be subject to Perlmutter’s famously eccentric management style, with Marvel Studios now reporting directly to Disney’s chief Alan Horn. So how will that affect the most popular film franchise in Hollywood? Here’s why the average superhero-loving Joe should care.

Feige has never publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Perlmutter. In fact, in a lengthy 2014 profile of the inner workings of Marvel, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that Feige has consistently “kept to the company line—always loyal to Ike.” But Disney, which bought Marvel in 2009, has now removed Perlmutter from the filmmaking process, whether due to reported behind-the-scenes complaints from Feige, a deal-breaking accumulation of Perlmutter’s eccentricities, or simply because, as they said in a statement to the Reporter:

Marvel Studios is taking the next logical step in its integration with The Walt Disney Studios, joining Pixar and Lucasfilm in centralizing many of its film-related functions in Burbank, with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co-president Louis D’Esposito continuing to lead the Marvel Studios team reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn.

Even as someone fanatically private—he reportedly wore glasses and a false mustache to disguise himself at the 2008 premiere of Iron Man—Perlmutter has managed to become legendary for his various eccentricities. Reported anecdotes of Perlmutter’s parsimony range from kind of cute (“Why do you need a new pencil? There’s 2 inches left on that one!”) to mildly embarrassing to the company (“Disney ran out of food at an Avengers media event because of Perlmutter's constraints, causing reporters to pilfer from Universal’s nearby suite for The Five-Year Engagement”) to fairly insulting (Mickey Rourke was reportedly initially offered a mere $250,000 to appear in Iron Man 2.)

Perlmutter’s company, Toy Biz, helped to rescue Marvel from bankruptcy back in the mid-90s, so it’s somewhat understandable he would want the comic-book giant to take a financially frugal approach going forward. A source told The Hollywood Reporter, “Disney owns Marvel, but Ike gets to control every budget and everything spent on marketing, down to the penny.” And that legendarily tight-fisted approach may have resulted in the most notorious rumor about Perlmutter. According to The Financial Times, when Don Cheadle was hired at a much cheaper rate to replace Terrence Howard in the Iron Man franchise, Perlmutter allegedly told former chairman of Disney consumer products Andy Mooney that no one would notice because black people “look the same.” Mooney has since left, reportedly over conflicts with Perlmutter, and he was quickly followed out the door by three African-American female executives who have since sought settlements. None of these moves look good on a company that is frequently called out by fans for coming up short on matters of diversity.