What Bob Iger’s return as Disney CEO means for Marvel, Pixar, and parks

Disney, in a surprise move, announced that Bob Chapek, its chief executive, would be replacing with Bob Iger immediately.

Chapek was hand-picked by Iger to lead Disney. He lasted less than three years and saw staff tensions, bad talent relations, stagnating franchises and a sharp drop in the share price. Iger’s first stint as CEO lasted 15 years; he was well liked, acquired Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox, and launched Disney Plus, turning a family entertainment company into a 21st-century media juggernaut. During that time, Disney’s market value increased fivefold.

The board’s decision, while surprising, looks quite simple when you put it like that. But there are a number of things going on here, and the picture isn’t always clear-cut.

Iger’s reappointment is probably intended to reassure shareholders and shore up the company’s share price, which has dropped 40% in 2022 to date. Iger (71) will serve as CEO for two years. During that time, one of his main responsibilities is to find his replacement.

Iger was not able to let go of his position last year. He delayed his retirement many times before finally leaving at the beginning of 2020. However, he remained executive chairman until mid-2021 and kept an eye on his successor. Even then he seemed to be experiencing a form of buyer’s remorse, stopping just short of publicly criticizing Chapek a number of times.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Disney

Chapek is the fall guy for Disney’s recent underwhelming financial performance. Although he was judged to have handled the challenges of the pandemic — including the closure of movie theaters, parks, and cruises — reasonably well, and the parks business has bounced back, in the last year the company has been falling short of Wall Street’s expectations of it. Main culprit is the unstable TV landscape. Traditional TV revenue has declined while the cost to build a streaming platform takes its toll.

Disney Plus’ growth has been impressive, and with Hulu and ESPN Plus also under its wing, the company challenges Netflix for overall subscriber numbers. Yet Disney’s streaming business just lost $1.47 billion in one quarter alone. Wall Street is increasingly skeptical about the long-term profitability of streaming platforms — Netflix has lost a lot of investor confidence this year, too.

Is this Chapek’s fault, though? Disney Plus was Iger’s (very expensive) baby, and the “increasingly complex period of industry transformation” that the board cited in its press release about the change of CEO is happening to everyone. You need to see the bigger picture in order to understand why Disney needed a new broom.

The fact is that Chapek, who rose through Disney’s parks wing, had repeatedly shown himself unequal to the diplomatic challenges of running a major entertainment business. He lost the trust and confidence of many staff and creatives when his initial response to the passing of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill was neutral and politically disengaged. He had to apologize — and yet still persisted in his plan to move 2,000 staff from California to Florida, eventually delaying it months later, but only after it had sparked mass resignations from the famous Imagineers team of theme park and attractions designers.

Photo: Jay Maidment/Marvel Studios

This wasn’t the only way Chapek had alienated the creative people that power Disney’s business. He fired Peter Rice, TV chief, for a controversial reorganization that took control away from the content executives. He managed to manage the hostile legal battle with Scarlett Johansson over the decision not to release. Black WidowThe Hollywood talents received the situation poorly, even after it was finally settled. His reputation was that of a dismissive attitude to animation, despite its position at the very core of Disney cultureAnd drove Pixar morale into the ground by bypassing a theatrical release for three of its films in a row — Soul, Luca, and The Turning of the Red. (Pixar’s return to theaters with Lightyear fizzled, too.)

While it’s difficult to tie Chapek directly with the Star Wars fortunes and Marvel, Star Wars has shown signs of stagnation. Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy has been unable to get any new Star Wars movie project to stick since 2019’s Skywalkers Rise. Marvel was a steady earner but the quality of its productions has suffered from a hectic schedule. Wakanda for Ever: Black Panther’s box office — which is huge but a little below expectations, tracking slightly behind Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness — perhaps shows the first indication of franchise fatigue. Both Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ boss, and Kennedy could use some guidance.

Iger is a talented boss. Smoothing things over with Hollywood stars and setting the internal studios — Pixar especially — back on their feet will be on his to-do list. Although he might have to do some cost-cutting to put Disney’s finances in order, he is certainly not who Disney’s board would have chosen if it wanted to carve up assets and slash and burn production in the style of David Zaslav, the destructive new head of Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s possible to see the future for Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and the rest of the Disney film and TV family looking brighter with Iger in charge, at least temporarily.

Chapek will be missed by very few. Disney’s latest financial results — and the disastrously handled earnings call that announced them — are what finished him off, but his style had long since made him deeply unpopular at Disney and within the industry.

It remains a question: why would Iger return to Iger after he retired in victory? What’s in it for him? He may be looking to make right the wrong decision: choosing a successor. One theory is that this dealmaker sees one more deal. (Netflix, even?). Or perhaps, unlike the great Disney heroine of his era, he just can’t let it go.