Bob Iger Stopped Isaac Perlmutter From Firing Marvel President Kevin Feige in 2015

Disney CEO Bob Iger says that he stopped Issac Perlmutter from firing Marvel’s Kevin Feige. Back in 2015, the longtime company executive wanted to take the beloved MCU architect out of the picture. The current CEO spoke to CNBC about that time and how he rallied around the producer during this time. All of this story comes hot on the heels of Nelson Peltz’s decision to fall back from trying to get onto the Disney board. The activist investor was pushing for a lot of changes to increase cashflow for investors. For a long time Perlmutter was the voice at the head of the Marvel conversation. But, Iger saw something special in what Feige was doing and put things in the hands of Alan Horn. The rest is basically history at this point.

“Our filings indicate that both Ike and Nelson were working together to try to encourage the board or convince the board to put Nelson on the board,” he explained. “They have a relationship that dates back quite some time. We bought Marvel in 2009. I promised Ike the job that he would continue to run Marvel after that. Not forever, necessarily. But after that. 

Iger continued, “And in 2015 he was intent on firing Kevin Feige who was running Marvel’s studio, the movie making [operation] at the time, and I thought that was a mistake and stepped in to prevent that from happening. I think Kevin is an incredibly, incredibly talented executive that you know, the Marvel track record speaks for itself. And so I moved the moviemaking operation of Marvel out from under Ike into the movie studio under Alan Horn”

CNBC’s David Faber asked about any ill will such a move would have created. Iger had this to say in response. “You’d have to ask Ike about that. But let’s put it this way. He was not happy about it. And I think that unhappiness exists today,” the CEO said. “And you know, what the link is between that and Nelson, his relationship. I think that’s something that you can speculate about. I won’t.”

What’s The Future For Disney Looking Like?

In the first earnings call of his second tenure, it seems like the Disney+ divisions along with everything at the company are being restructured again. “Now it’s time for another transformation,” Iger said to investors, “one that rationalizes our enviable streaming business and puts it on a path to sustainable growth and profitability, while also reducing expenses to improve margins, and better positioning us to weather future disruption increased competition, and global economic challenges. We must also return creativity to the center of the company, increased accountability, improved results and ensure the quality of our content and experiences.”

Are you glad Iger stepped in? Let us know down in the comments!