After the announcement of Josh D’Amaro’s new role as the incoming CEO of Disney, there was a flurry of speculation as to what Bob Iger’s replacement would do first.
Will he establish himself as one of the greats, following in the footsteps of his mentor Iger? Or is he positioned to flame out, a Bob Chapek 2.0? Below are five burning questions Variety has about D’Amaro and his new role at the top of one of the world’s biggest entertainment companies.
1. Will Hollywood Take a Shine to the New Guy?
D’Amaro boasts the kind of corporate experience that makes Wall Street swoon and he’s intimately familiar with Disney’s highly lucrative parks business. To much of Hollywood, however, he’s essentially a cipher, with little firsthand experience in the film and television parts of the Disney empire. The succession plan accounts for that by promoting Dana Walden to the new role of chief content officer, but D’Amaro will still need to embark on some kind of listening tour as he introduces himself to the powerbrokers and A-list stars who make the franchises that keep Mickey Mouse in cheddar. And that’s no easy task. Chapek, one of D’Amaro’s successors, boasted a similar, parks-heavy resume and struggled to make nice with the entertainment industry poobahs. His standoff with Scarlett Johansson over Disney’s decision to send “Black Widow” to streaming was a debacle that helped set the stage for his aborted run as CEO. Plus, given that Iger’s succession was a two-year-pls saga that also involved Walden, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, the new Disney chief will also need to embark on a charm offensive among the company’s senior leadership and rank-and-file. After all, bakeoffs invariably lead to bad blood.
2. How Will Disney Deal With Netflix-Warner Bros., Paramount-Warner Bros., or Whoever Gets the Studio?
Disney is still first among equals when it comes to its big studio brethren. However, the entertainment business looks very different from the one that Iger faced when he took over as CEO in 2005. Streaming services are seen as the future, and while Disney has made great strides with Disney+ and Hulu as competitors to Netflix, it will still need to manage the declining cinema attendance and the cord-cutting that’s upended cable. That’s a delicate balancing act, and things could get even more complicated. Disney may face an even more formidable rival if Netflix is able to secure regulatory approval for its deal to buy Warner Bros., a pact that would give the streaming leviathan access to HBO, DC Films and a library of franchises ranging from “Harry Potter” to “The Hangover.” If Netflix falters, that could set the stage for David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance to swoop in and play spoiler, and with all that Oracle dough, the combined company would make for one deep-pocketed adversary. That’s to say nothing of tech giants like Amazon and Apple who have moved into the film and television space while boasting far greater market caps, $2.6 trillion and $4 trillion respectively, than Disney’s $1.85 billion. The Magic Kingdom might need some bigger castle walls.
3. Will Video Games Be Disney’s New Priority?
In 2024, Disney invested $1.5 billion into Epic Games, the company whose flagship title is “Fortnite.” At the time, Iger said he met with then-Disney Experiences chairman D’Amaro and gaming chief Sean Shoptaw to talk about the scope of the gaming business. “The first thing they showed me were demographic trends,” Iger said. “And when I saw Gen Z and Gen Alpha and even Millennials, I saw the amount of time they were spending in terms of their total media screen time on video games, it was stunning to me, equal to what they spend on TV and movies. And the conclusion I reached was we have to be there, and we have to be there as soon as we possibly can in a very compelling way.” If D’Amaro was one of the driving forces behind Iger’s bullish video game play, how much more of the estimated $564 billion gaming market can Disney get involved in?
4. Will D’Amaro Be Able to Overcome Perceived Park Difficulties?
One interesting indicator of D’Amaro’s perception is how so-called “Disney Adults” — perhaps the most engaged group of Disney analysts outside of shareholders — discuss him online. While there is a group that appreciates his enthusiasm for parks and the fan experience, with several citing his love of speaking to normal people about what they like and what they don’t about the parks, it hasn’t been smooth sailing. A frequent topic of discussion is the price increases in the parks, which have risen steadily since 2016, and the dynamic price model can send single day pass to a single Disney World park to $199, per Business Insider. Also many previous park perks now have costs added to them, food prices have increased, and the Lightning Lane fast passes can add hundreds of dollars to the day’s price. Second is the misfire and closure of Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser in Florida, which was criticized for high costs and low return value. The project, which was announced in 2017, opened in 2022 and closed in 2023, was a massive flop that D’Amaro described as “difficult to even explain to the public.” Will he be able to articulate big ideas in the future?
5. How Will He Manage Trump and His Big Government FCC?
Disney’s contentious relationship with President Trump and activist FCC chairman Brendan Carr came to a head last year, after Jimmy Kimmel spoke about the Charlie Kirk assassination on his show. Carr directly threatened ABC in an interview on a conservative podcast, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Instead of standing up for their talent, ABC indefinitely suspended Kimmel — likely to keep good standing with the FCC before major deals that could be disrupted came under Carr’s scrutiny. It’s the same move that led to CBS canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” right before merger-focused parent company Paramount was sold to Skydance. Will Disney continue to kiss the ring in the D’Amaro era? Or will new sliding metrics, such as dipping theme park attendance due to decreasing numbers of international visitors — thought to be linked to Trump’s policies and anti-immigrant sentiment — urge D’Amaro to hold steady?
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