Bob Iger left Disney’s CEO post just before COVID exploded. Will his second exit be followed by a plot twist?
Hollywood and Wall Street have learned to roll their eyes when Disney CEO Bob Iger says he’s stepping down. In the years since Iger took the CEO job in 2005, he scheduled and then postponed his retirement four times before he eventually handed over the CEO position to parks chief Bob Chapek in 2020—and then took it back about three years later. Is this, finally, the real thing?
It sure seems like it. The company announced today that, at long last, Iger will soon step down as Walt Disney’s CEO, surrendering the job to Disney parks chief Josh D’Amaro at the company’s annual meeting on March 18. This time, there are no ifs, ands, or buts.
Well, almost none. Some 500 words into today’s announcement is the intriguing statement that Iger “upon transition [on March 18] will continue to serve as senior advisor and a member of the Disney board until his retirement from the company on Dec. 31, 2026.”
“Senior advisor”? That’s a new title for Iger, and while it may seem harmless, it also seems unnecessary. (Fortune has not been able to get a detailed definition of the role from Disney and will add it if it’s received.)
Longtime Disney watchers know that a phrase like that must be there for a reason. The last time Iger stepped down, he shocked the entertainment and business worlds by abruptly announcing Chapek’s promotion to CEO, effective immediately, in a Friday afternoon press release late in February 2020. Media coverage shifted almost entirely to Chapek as the new CEO.
A few weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic landed in the U.S.—shutting down most public places, including Disney parks. The company’s revenue fell sharply; previous year profits turned to losses; and the stock price plunged. Given that the company had closed its Disneyland parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong in January, some, including the New York Times’ then–media critic Ben Smith, wondered aloud: “Had Mr. Iger, with his deep ties to China and legendary timing, seen the coronavirus about to devastate his global realm? Did he get out just in time?” (Iger assured Smith that there was “nothing different or odd to speculate about.”)
In any case, Iger didn’t disappear from the company’s leadership. Far from it: He remained effectively at its helm with a new title, executive chair. That may sound like a nice honorific title for a leader being put out to pasture, but in fact it’s a far more powerful title used occasionally throughout the corporate world. The executive chair is the company’s top executive, above even the CEO. (This can leave titular CEOs in the awkward predicament of being responsible for a company’s success or failure without full control of its strategy.) Lest there be any doubt about who was really the boss at Disney, buried deep in the press release was the revelation that Chapek would report directly to Iger individually—as well as to the board of directors, which Iger chaired.
“When you’re executive chair, the buck stops with you,” Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert who has served on multiple boards, told Fortune at the time. “It’s a title change with little meaning. You’re still running the show. Period.”
Iger continued out of the limelight as executive chair for almost two years, then finally stepped down entirely. For the first time in his 27-year Disney career, he was in no way tethered to the company. Then, after 11 months, the board unceremoniously fired Chapek and brought Iger back as CEO.
Which brings us to today. Seven months after Iger returned as CEO in 2023, the board extended his contract until the end of 2026. Today’s announcement is in line with the contract.
It also comes, as in 2020, during a time of societal turmoil and economic uncertainty. Within its sector, Disney is relatively stable (especially the Experiences division that D’Amaro has headed), but it faces pressure on multiple fronts—weakening legacy TV and film economics amid the rise of generative AI, and a streaming play that has only recently tipped into profitability; whipsawing media‑industry dealmaking and regulatory turbulence; tariffs escalating in a global trade war; and an international climate where public sentiment toward America has grown markedly more wary and adversarial.
After the bumpy transition last time, this succession—managed by board chair James Gorman, former CEO of Morgan Stanley—appears to be a textbook exercise in doing it right. It may well turn out that way; and of course, Iger must leave someday. But questions still nag about that “senior advisor” role. By all accounts Iger has had a close relationship with D’Amaro, a protégé who many have observed sounds and even dresses a lot like his mentor. But outgoing CEOs coach their successors all the time without requiring a new title. Why did Iger need one? What does it mean?
Disney is arguably the world’s best storyteller. The Iger saga might just deliver another plot twist.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com