With Disney officially naming Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro as CEO and the successor to Bob Iger and Dana Walden as President and Chief Creative Officer, one of the questions that remains is what do the moves mean for the company’s film division, given that neither D’Amaro nor Walden have strong ties to that side of the business.
Deadline has confirmed that as part of Walden’s new role, her former co-Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman will now report to her, while all other major leaders under the film umbrella will continue to report to Bergman. That list includes Disney live-action and 20th Century chief David Greenbaum and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
While her expertise lies in television, when it comes to managing talent relationships there are few executives who have had a better track record than Walden, and her reputation for listening to the creative community and serving as a buffer between the business and creative sides of the company should only help in garnering favor. Studio insiders go on to add that Walden and Bergman already have strong ties after sharing the Co-President title for the past couple years and that relationship will help strengthen the film side of the company
Sources say that in regards to D’Amaro, there is already a feeling he an Iger-like charismatic side that should go over well with people in the film world. While insiders are hopeful, some are wary of a “Chapek 2.0 situation,” referring to former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who also headed up Parks and Experiences prior to his CEO promotion but had his share of battles with the film community during his short tenure as Iger’s replacement from 2020-2022.
While Chapek had plenty of obstacles to overcome (he took over Disney the day before the world was shut down by Covid), he did himself no favors with how he handled messaging about Disney’s long-term plans for the film business, including being vocal in messaging to creatives about how Disney would like to send less product to theaters and more to Disney+. There were also internal battles with talent, including a very public lawsuit between Disney and its Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson, who sued the company for breach of contract claiming the simultaneous theatrical and Disney+ release of the 2021 Marvel movie violated her agreement for an exclusive theatrical release.
The missteps would eventually result in Chapek’s exit and the return of Iger, who cooled tensions in the film community with a re-embrace of theatrical. Since then, Disney has remained the top studio at the box office, taking the domestic and global market share crown again in 2025 with a near $6.6 billion worldwide led by Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
The movie division’s success led off Disney’s Q1 2026 earnings call earlier this week, with Iger giving Bergman and his team a shout-out.
There will be movie-side questions that need to be addressed once D’Amaro and Walden settle in, including around Marvel and Feige. Marvel is the one division that hasn’t seen an overhaul in exec changes since Iger’s return — Disney announced in January that Kathleen Kennedy is handing over Lucasfilm’s leadership to Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, and Greenbaum was elevated in February 2024 — and Feige’s future at the company is always a topic the town loves to gossip about. That said, insiders don’t expect a change anytime soon as Feige is focused on delivering the next Avengers movie in December as well as relaunching the X-Men franchise.
As for the immediate future, Disney’s film team has lined up a 2026 slate that could rival its record-breaking 2019 box office with big titles on the way including The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars film since 2019, bowing over Memorial Day weekend; Toy Story 5, bowing on June 19; a live-action Moana pic on July 10; and the Russo Brothers return to the MCU with Avengers: Doomsday closing out the year December 18.
