When the board of The Walt Disney Corporation (TWDC) kicked out now-former CEO Bob Chapek and replaced him with once-former-now-current CEO Bob Iger last week, Disney fans everywhere (like me) rejoiced.
Cast members are rejoicing as well. A friend of mine who is a longtime Disney employee told me that morale was up and energy was amazing among cast members within hours of the announcement of Chapek’s ouster.
Some of the ridiculous crowd-control measures that Chapek enacted after COVID-19, like forcing guests to make park reservations and only allowing them to “hop” to another park at certain times, should soon be a thing of the past. Guests also hope that Iger will put a stop to the runaway price increases.
Another feature of Chapek’s tenure as CEO that fans hope will go away is the wokeness and political activism that has characterized the company, particularly in 2022. Unfortunately, we may not lose that in Disney’s creative output. PJ Media’s Lincoln Brown reported earlier this week that Iger told employees in a town hall that Disney “can’t lose” its “core values of our storytelling” which include “inclusion and acceptance and tolerance.”
But Iger admits that the company stepped over the line in its tussle with the state of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis over the Parental Rights in Education bill, which the left saddled with the false moniker of “Don’t Say Gay.”
Related: Disney Has Turned Its Back on What Made It So Great
Journalist Christopher Rufo acquired footage of an employee town hall with Iger (presumably the same one Lincoln wrote about), and Iger made an interesting admission: Disney shouldn’t have picked the fight it did with DeSantis and Florida.
“In response to an audience question about the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation, Iger said the company would still promote ‘inclusion,'” Rufo reports, “but signaled that he would adopt a different posture than his processor and suggested that the company will ‘listen to [its] audience’ and ‘have respect for the people that [it’s] serving.’”
Iger also noted that the controversy that surrounded Chapek and TWDC locking horns with the Sunshine State, which resulted in the Florida legislature revoking Disney’s special governing status for its Reedy Creek Improvement District, was regrettable.
“I was sorry to see us dragged into that battle,” he said. “The State of Florida has been important to us for a long time. And we have been very important to the State of Florida. That is something I’m extremely mindful of and will articulate if I get the chance.”
It’s worth noting that if anybody “dragged” Disney into the battle with the state of Florida, it was woke employees who spurred Chapek to speak out and act out, a point that DeSantis made emphatically on Fox News.
Gov. Ron DeSantis reacts to recent comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger: "They brought this on themselves." pic.twitter.com/t6CC6ieEM3
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 30, 2022
It will be interesting to see if (and how) Iger tries to mend fences with Florida. Iger also said that he wants Disney to back off in the culture wars, a position that fans and some cast members will appreciate.
“Do I like the company being embroiled in controversy? Of course not,” he said. “It can be distracting, and it can have a negative impact on the company. And to the extent that I can work to kind of quiet things down, I’m going to do that.”
Even though Iger served as CEO of TWDC for nearly 15 years before turning the reins over to Chapek, his return to Disney lying relatively low in the culture wars is a breath of fresh air.
Now if Iger will work his Disney magic on improving the guest experience in the parks, we Disney fans will be even happier and more appreciative.
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