Disney Learned From the Chapek Debacle

Observers of The Walt Disney Company are gazing with bemusement right now.

We hardly recognize the PR campaign playing out right in front of us.

Suddenly, Disney comes across as organized and well-considered.

That’s a record scratch moment for anyone who is still covering some of 2025’s nonsense.

Throughout the second half of last year, people like me begged Disney to do better at PR.

Now, that’s happening seemingly overnight, almost as if Disney flipped a switch.

As we watch the message being presented, we cannot help but acknowledge the truth.

Disney learned from the Chapek debacle. Let’s discuss why this week has gone so smoothly.

“No Comment”

How many times do you think former CEO Bob Chapek could have saved himself aggravation by using that simple phrase?

Chapek should have stated the equivalent of that when discussing Scarlett Johansson.

By doing so, Disney’s lawyers could have taken care of everything and likely gotten a better settlement.

Instead, Chapek tried to turn the world against a popular actress, but that’s not all he did.

This lunkhead thought he should badmouth a woman who was eight months pregnant at the time.

Picking a fight with someone more famous is a terrible idea in and of itself, as Justin Baldoni has learned.

Calling a pregnant woman greedy and callous is the way you get the entire internet to hate you.

Then, we have the “Don’t say gay” catastrophe wherein he somehow managed to anger both sides of the political aisle.

If ever there was a time to keep saying, “No comment,” it was then, but Chapek panicked.

To complete his ill-fated tenure, his hiring of Geoff Morrell was a complete disaster.

Morrell’s literal job at Disney should have been to tell Chapek to say, “No comment.”

Once Zenia Mucha left Disney, the company has provided an outward appearance of pure chaos.

Listening to New Voices

When Disney indicated that James Gorman would handle succession, many were skeptical.

The looming presence of Bob Iger made that thought sound implausible bordering on laughable.

Now that details of the process have emerged, that’s exactly what happened, though.

Disney’s Board of Directors interviewed more than 100 candidates, many of them from outside the company. Throughout this process, the company received questions, just as it asked them.

This process proved informative for Gorman, as he learned how third-party executives perceived Disney.

More importantly, the Board had its own previous mistakes with Chapek thrown back in face.

The Board met several times in 2025 and pointedly left Iger out of some conversations.

In that manner, Disney’s Board guaranteed that Iger wouldn’t be the one picking his successor.

Presuming we believe what’s been presented about Chapek’s ascension, that’s Iger’s fault.

So, excluding Iger now demonstrates a welcome level of learning curve on its own.

Still, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s quickly discuss three other ways Disney handled this transition better.

Iger Will Get Out Quickly

As of right now, Bob Iger only has about one month remaining as the CEO of Disney.

While cynics scoff at the thought, believing he’ll return, that doesn’t appear to be in the cards. This time, the executive seems to have accepted something he did wrong in 2020.

Iger didn’t leave immediately. To the contrary, he stayed for another 22 months.

Chapek bristled at the looming presence of Iger, who technically remained his boss.

In fact, Chapek officially held the title of most powerful person at Disney for less than 11 months.

Iger officially left on New Year’s Eve, 2021, and even then, his exit message felt like a parting shot.

By the end of November 2022, Iger had returned. Even worse, his name remained at the forefront of Disney rumors.

Iger met with remaining Disney executives and loudly complained about Chapek’s performance.

Those conversations naturally made their way into the media, poisoning Chapek’s leadership.

People knew their old boss, the revered Iger, hated their new one, the flailing Chapek.

So, Disney’s new CEO never earned the trust of his employees, what with Iger undermining him at every turn.

To prevent that from happening again, which it wouldn’t anyway, Disney’s Board has spoken.

Iger will switch to an advisory role in March and hold that position until the end of 2026.

Notably, Iger will depart Disney’s Board at the end of the year, too. He’s done.

Thus, the lingering threat of a Disney icon won’t be a problem for D’Amaro. Somewhere, I’m guessing Bob Chapek is muttering under his breath about this move.

Disney Demonstrated Unity

MickeyBlog has dutifully reported on all the kind words floating around the company this week.

First, Iger and D’Amaro made a joint appearance on ABC World News Tonight. The difference in Iger’s body language here vs. the Chapek handoff in 2020 was stark.

That’s the 2020 video wherein Iger looks like he just found out he had four minutes to live.

With the D’Amaro announcement, Iger gave every indication that he was a proud papa.

Meanwhile, Dana Walden and D’Amaro exchanged pleasantries on social media.

Iger also posted a lovely parting message on D23, signifying that he’s done being the Voice of Disney.

D’Amaro holds that title now, and luminaries such as Bruce Vaughn sound thrilled.

Even Michael Eisner likes the move and, as a reminder, he and Iger aren’t exactly buddies.

Basically, the only person I’ve seen express outright dislike of the move is Nelson Peltz.

So, if you had any doubts about this promotion, that fact alone should make you feel better.

If Peltz hates it, that’s a really, really good sign. I still can’t stand that guy.

Anyway, the point is that when Chapek became CEO, people expressed shock.

Then, his early moves pitted Disney executives against one another in a loyalty test.

Now, we are witnessing a collaborative effort to show that Disney’s C-suite will remain aligned.

How long will that magical utopia last? Well, it’s an open question. Still, I’ll happily take this over 2020.

Disney Kept Dana Walden

I’ve been amused in reading Wall Street assessments of Disney’s decision.

Most of them read the same way: “We expected D’Amaro, but Walden surprised us.”

With Disney deciding not to choose Co-CEOs, this move seemed like an either/or.

Now, I’d had explicitly stated that I expected Gorman to find a way to keep everyone.

The entire reason why Disney brought him onboard was due to what he accomplished at Morgan Stanley.

Gorman led a largely harmonious succession competition and chose the right person in Ted Pick.

Since then, the stock has soared, partially due to Gorman’s preventing a massive talent drain.

He promoted the other two candidates for CEO into new roles and gave them tons of money.

So, they stayed, and Morgan Stanley stock has surged since then. Well, “exploded” is a more accurate term.

In 2020, Disney chose Chapek over his top competitor, Kevin Mayer, which led to an unfortunate outcome.

Even as Chapek championed Disney+, Mayer, the executive who had created it, left the company.

Mayer didn’t even last three months with Chapek in charge, departing that May.

Chapek loved that he’d eliminated the competition, but Disney felt the void.

Mayer later co-founded what is now a billion-dollar business at Candle Media.

Losing Walden would have been similarly devastating to Disney. Thankfully, the company learned, though.

Walden will remain at Disney in a new role as President and Chief Creative Officer.

Gorman went so far as to create an entirely new title for Dana Walden to keep her at Disney.

Final Thoughts

Thus, Disney should avoid the chaos they experienced during Chapek’s early (and only) years as Disney CEO.

Ultimately, Bob Chapek was positioned to fail, although he made enough unforced errors that he probably would have anyway.

Josh D’Amaro definitely seems like he’s in a better spot to lead Disney for the next decade and beyond.

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Feature Photo: Variety