For the last few years, the question of who would succeed Bob Iger hovered over Disney. Entertainment executive Dana Walden’s decades-long career in television, her reputation as a talent-whisperer, and her close relationship with Iger made her the obvious choice from Hollywood’s perspective: “The word about succession is that it’s all Dana all the time,” a top agent told VF in 2024. Her biggest competition was Josh D’Amaro, the silver-haired head of Disney’s parks and resorts division, who had a devoted following inside and outside the company. When he showed up at Disney theme parks, visitors often lined up to meet him.
The company finally ended its executive bake-off Tuesday with the announcement of D’Amaro as its new CEO. Disney shied away from the historic choice of appointing a first woman to top the company, though a new position was created for Walden: She’s been named President and Chief Creative Officer, giving her oversight of both film and television at Disney.
“Reading the tea leaves for at least the past six months or so, there was a sense that Josh was out in front,” says a veteran Hollywood producer who has worked with Disney. “If you want the most experienced executive in a tumultuous financial environment that’ll give confidence to Wall Street, then Josh is your guy.”
D’Amaro’s appointment might shock those who remember the disastrous, short, and disastrously short tenure of another former parks chief—Bob Chapek—whom Iger handpicked to be his successor in 2020. Among other things, Chapek enraged Hollywood talent by messing with Scarlett Johansson over her Black Widow contract and pissed off a sizeable proportion of Disney fans by flip-flopping on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Things got so bad that Iger raced back to the boardroom in 2022 to clean up the mess, spending the next four years deliberating on the best choice to take the company forward into a complicated future. He offered ongoing guidance to his top candidates, who were said to be educating themselves on all elements of the business.
Walden seemed perfectly placed as Iger’s protege. They both rose through the ranks of the television business, lived near to each other in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood, and were often spotted taking walks together. Walden was riding particularly high in 2024: that’s when she lured her good friend Ryan Murphy to Disney from Netflix, a streaming era coup. (“Dana, like Bob [Iger], is a real star,” Murphy told me back then.”When they walk into a room, the energy changes.”) And it looked like Kamala Harris, Walden’s pal for more than 30 years, might become president, giving her a hotline to the White House.
Of course, Trump won the presidency instead—and soon, the vibe shifted heavily in D’Amaro’s favor. After paying $15 million to settle a defamation case brought against ABC by Trump, yanking a trans storyline from a Pixar streaming series, and fighting a high-stakes battle over Jimmy Kimmel and free speech, Disney seemed eager to remove itself from the crosshairs of the culture wars and the current administration. Perhaps 2026 suddenly didn’t feel like good timing for the company’s first female CEO.
