Disney's Bob Iger Criticizes Successor Bob Chapek

Disney CEO Bob Iger had some critical words for his former successor Bob Chapek. This week, Disney had a Town Hall where the longtime executive talked to employees about the state of their company. The New York Times reports that Iger gave rare criticism of Chapek's tenure during their DealBook Summit in New York. The CEO said, "I was disappointed in what I was seeing in the transition period and while I was out. I worked hard at distancing myself from it." While that assessment of the Chapek tenure lines up with a lot of fan sentiment, Iger can't stay in the catbird seat forever. The executive also said that the current CEO succession planning process is "robust" at the time of writing.

2023 was both a 100-year anniversary of the company and a challenging slate. There were bright spots as the parks continue to rake in money hand over fist and fans really loved Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. However, there were some unforeseen hardships as well. Both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels underperformed. Meanwhile, the animation division is still trying to get back on its feet after decisions made by Chapek pushed many Pixar efforts to Disney+ rather than theaters. Wish might manage the same feat as Elemental did earlier this year, but uncertainty is there for observers.

More Sequels For Disney

One thing could be waiting in the wings for Disney, more leading into franchises. Bob Iger told Good Morning America that Frozen 4 is on the way despite Frozen 3 still being a little ways off. This all came at the same time he was talking about a new Frozen land at Hong Kong's Disney park.

"Well, I'll give you a little surprise there Michael. Frozen 3 is in the works and there might be a Frozen 4 in the works, too," Iger told GMA just a few days ago. "But, I don't have much to say about those films right now. But Jenn Lee who created Frozen, the original Frozen and Frozen 2, is hard at work with her team at Disney Animation on not one but actually two stories."

"For years at our Disney Parks, we've been creating these large immersive worlds. Essentially, they are the physical embodiment of some of the greatest stories that we've told," he continued. :And of course, Frozen being one of our most valuable franchises, as you mentioned, a very successful film, I think it's just right for building the place that Frozen takes place in. It's just a fantastic land that enables people to get immersed in the story of Frozen and interact with all the great characters from the films."

Any Other Big Changes On The Way?

Another big change for Disney has been a combined Disney+ and Hulu app. There have been rumbles about this kind of release for years now. Disney decided to purchase the other parts of Hulu this year and a merger is imminent in 2024. Here's what Iger had to say about that just a few weeks ago.

"Speaking of Hulu, we were pleased to announce last week that we will acquire the remaining stake in Hulu held by Comcast, which will further Disney streaming objective," Iger explained during Disney's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday. "We remain on track to roll out more unified one app experience domestically, making expensive general entertainment content available to bundle subscribers via Disney+....We expect that Hulu and Disney plus will result in increased engagement, greater advertising opportunities, lower churn and reduced customer acquisition costs, thereby increasing our overall margins. We will launch a beta version for bundle subscribers in December, giving parents time to set up profiles and parental controls that work best for their families ahead of the official launch in early spring 2024."

How did you feel about Chapek's tenure? Let us know in the comments!