The Walt Disney Co. is betting that James Gorman can pull off a succession two-fer.
The former Morgan Stanley CEO executed what is considered among the smoothest succession processes in recent corporate history: He announced his plan in May to exit the investment bank; revealed that three internal candidates were in the running; chose one (Ted Pick); and did so while keeping the others in the company after it was over.
Gorman will become chairman of the board of Disney in January, with finding a successor to CEO Bob Iger as his top priority, targeting an “early 2026” decision.
It’s no easy task, with two years having passed since Iger returned to the company with a promise to figure out succession once more, alongside a contract extension that keeps him at Disney through 2026.
“What you currently have now is an extremely powerful CEO, but whoever follows him in this role will not enjoy the same amount of informal power,” says Henning Piezunka, an associate professor of management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. “In that sense, it’s a somewhat ungrateful job to fill: While you formally get exactly the same position, informally you have a very, very different power basis.”
And while the last time Disney chose a new CEO, it was by all accounts Iger’s call to name Bob Chapek his successor, this time the board is very, very engaged, and it has no shortage of strategies and candidates to explore. The Hollywood Reporter takes a close look at some of Gorman’s options for the search process:
More seasoning required: 5-1 odds
The move by Gorman to say that Disney is targeting a 2026 CEO announcement suggests that the board thinks the internal candidates — which include Dana Walden, Josh D’Amaro, Jimmy Pitaro and Alan Bergman — are not quite ready to take over yet. But the 2026 date does not mean Disney can’t make moves in 2025.
The company could very well move some executives around, switching oversight and responsibilities and giving potential successors experience at other parts of the company. Disney tried this a decade ago with Tom Staggs and Jay Rasulo, who swapped jobs as CFO and head of parks (it didn’t work out then), but with multiple internal candidates, it may be the only way to see who has the chops to run such a multifaceted company and give them a chance to prove their mettle outside of their current comfort zones.
Promoting an internal solo CEO: 8-1 odds
Maybe the delay to 2026 is just an opportunity for the internal candidates to prove themselves? The next year, after all, will be a critical one for the company. Consider: Disney’s streaming entertainment business needs to prove that it can be meaningfully profitable; its film business needs to prove that this year’s turnaround is for real; ESPN is set to launch a “flagship” streaming service; and Disney’s parks need to validate that the slowdown that began this year is short-lived, as the company begins to pour its $60 billion investment into the division. If one of the executives excels in their execution, it could put them over the top.
Piezunka says that Gorman and the board may also take a close look at the criteria that the next CEO needs to have, which could give the edge to one internal candidate or another.
“To me, that is the interesting question here: What are actually the criteria? What does the next CEO of Disney actually need to be good at?” he says. “In that way, it becomes a very strategic question: Is the future going to be parks? Is the question going to be streaming? Is the core advantage, so to speak, to manage these relationships with the stars? I think they will really be thoughtful about what does this person actually need to be able to do?”
Bringing in an outsider as CEO: 10-1 odds
Disney’s culture is so distinctive … can an outsider run it successfully? Is there anyone even capable of running a company like Disney who isn’t from the inside? At the D23 conference in Anaheim in August, Iger was treated like a celebrity on the show floor, as hard-core Disney fans sought selfies with the CEO, underscoring the unique role that the job entails.
The Disney succession committee — led by Gorman — says it continues to review both internal and external candidates, suggesting that the possibility is still live. The only external candidate to leak so far has been NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who met with the board last year, but with a 2026 target date, candidates at other companies with upcoming contract renewals could become available. Would NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, for example, be interested? What about Ted Sarandos? “It’s not even on my mind,” he told the WSJ Tech conference Oct. 22. That isn’t exactly a no.
The Netflix approach: Co-CEOs: 25-1 odds
Netflix has two CEOs, why not Disney? Well, for starters, Netflix co-CEOs Sarandos and Greg Peters have very different areas of expertise and focus, and Sarandos says the “respect” they have for each other allows them to hash out the decisions that need to be made at the CEO level.
“It’s hard for me to recommend the program to another company where I don’t really understand their business, and in turn, their business culture,” Sarandos said when asked about Disney naming co-CEOs.
Still, for a company as multifaceted and diverse as Disney, the idea isn’t crazy. One CEO focused on the “creative engines” of the film and TV studio (looking at you, Dana), and another on the operations of the parks and experiences (Hi, Josh), with areas like ESPN, marketing, finance, etc., divvied up between them, could make a certain amount of sense … if the candidates are open to the idea of getting less of a job than Iger had. Though as Wharton’s Piezunka notes, a co-CEO strategy “would almost run counter to the business model of Disney, to always strive for integration.”
Bob Iger extends his contract: 200-1 odds
Iger’s shadow falls over the entire Disney succession drama. He assumed the top job in a dramatic, public process 20 years ago, despite not having experience in all aspects of the business. But the Chapek decision looms large. Iger himself says that he has been conducting a postmortem on what went wrong. Iger has extended his contract so many times over the years that it is tempting to assume that the board would be quickly willing to do so again. But Gorman’s ascension is reason to think otherwise. “Does [Iger] get a second chance to get it right? I think that’s going to be an interesting question, to what degree will James Gorman say ‘You know what? I own this process,’ ” Piezunka says. The company has two years to get succession right, and despite Iger’s past extensions, there is ample reason to believe that there won’t be another one. Iger, for his part, says he “definitely” plans to step aside when his current contract is up.
Screw it, let’s sell or merge: 500-1 odds
What if Gorman can’t find a suitable candidate to succeed Iger? Would a company that has always been a buyer consider … a sale? It isn’t entirely crazy. In his 2019 autobiography The Ride of a Lifetime, Iger suggested that a deal with Apple was something that he had thought about.
“I believe that if Steve [Jobs] were still alive, we would have combined our companies, or at least discussed the possibility very seriously,” Iger wrote. Of course, that was then, this is now. Apple and Disney are frenemies (partners on the Vision Pro, but Disney ended the practice of letting users subscribe to Disney+ in-app on iOS devices). And there are so few buyers out there outside of big tech that could afford a company like Disney. As tempting as an exit might be, it seems as unlikely as they come outside of the Marvel multiverse.
THR’s Disney Oddsmaker: From Likely to Long Shot
2-1 Disney finally releases another Star Wars film that works, thanks to The Mandalorian and Grogu.
5-1 Disney enters a partnership with an artificial intelligence company for postproduction support as Wall Street favors companies that do AI deals.
40-1 Disney unveils a new, animated version of the MCU, seeing the success of Sony’s Spider-Verse.
100-1 Disney stops releasing subscriber figures for Disney+, now that Netflix has paved the way.
4,000-1 Disney brings back its Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel and experience, this time 20 percent less expensive.
This story first appeared in the Oct. 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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