The keys to the Magic Kingdom are about to vary fingers. The Walt Disney Firm has confirmed who will succeed Bob Iger – and for those who’re a fan of Disney Parks or Disney Cruise Line, the selection received’t come as a shock. Josh D’Amaro will take the reins as Disney’s subsequent CEO on March 18.
D’Amaro is a 28-year Disney veteran whose profession has been formed largely inside the corporate’s parks enterprise, most not too long ago as the pinnacle of Disney Experiences. He’s been overseeing one of the vital bold growth durations within the firm’s historical past, with tens of billions of {dollars} being poured into new cruise ships, main park expansions, and completely new locations – from a long-awaited Magic Kingdom growth at Walt Disney World to an Avatar-themed land coming to Disneyland, and a brand-new Disney park deliberate for Abu Dhabi.
Iger’s return was meant to stabilize Disney after a turbulent transition – however the firm he’s getting ready to depart now appears to be like very totally different from the one he re-joined. Like Bob Chapek, who served as Disney CEO between Iger’s two tenures, D’Amaro comes from the parks facet of the enterprise – however he’s getting into a really totally different Disney, and brings a special ability set formed by how experiences, streaming, and IP now intersect. The middle of gravity has shifted, as Experiences aren’t only a pillar of the enterprise anymore – they’ve turn out to be a driving drive.
Disney’s Experiences enterprise crossed the $10 billion income mark for the primary time within the first fiscal quarter of 2026. Parks, cruise ships, and reside leisure aren’t merely funding Disney’s future – they’re more and more shaping it.
Very similar to expertise traits that ebb and stream, Disney’s content material and characters stay the inspiration of the general expertise – however the way in which folks wish to interact with them has developed. Audiences don’t simply wish to watch their favourite tales anymore – they wish to step inside them in additional significant methods. Immersion has turn out to be the differentiator.
You’ll be able to really feel that shift whenever you stroll into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and encounter Stormtroopers, Rey, or the Mandalorian as you wander Batuu earlier than piloting the Millennium Falcon – with Darth Vader on the horizon. Or whenever you meet Marvel heroes at Avengers Campus, race via Radiator Springs at Disney California Journey, or come face-to-face with Olaf within the Frozen land at Disneyland Paris. These aren’t simply sights; they’re residing extensions of Disney’s worlds.
Leisure – motion pictures, TV, and streaming – stays critically essential. However as Iger has described it, there’s now an inner push-and-pull between Disney’s Leisure and Experiences groups, every competing to be the corporate’s progress engine.
Selecting D’Amaro makes clear simply how central parks, cruise traces, and Shopper Merchandise are to Disney’s future. Followers need extra alternatives to work together with iconic characters, to share these moments, and to make the magic tangible.
Simply as importantly, Disney’s leisure engine appears to be like to be in regular fingers. Alongside D’Amaro’s appointment, Dana Walden has been named President and Chief Inventive Officer of The Walt Disney Firm, putting the corporate’s movie, TV, and streaming companies below a single artistic chief who will report on to him. Walden has already been overseeing Disney’s leisure and streaming operations, and her expanded function indicators continuity and confidence on the content material facet.
Collectively, D’Amaro and Walden are more likely to sharpen Disney’s leisure division whereas increasing its attain throughout streaming, movie, and tv.
For a lot of followers, Disney+ is not the end line. It’s the entry level, or the stopover. You watch a sequence, you then wish to expertise it. You go to a park, you then return and rewatch. Perhaps you bounce right into a linked gaming universe that extends the story even additional.
Disney’s bread and butter has at all times been characters and tales that endure, and Iger’s landmark acquisitions didn’t simply add franchises; they basically reshaped Disney’s artistic gravity. However since 1955, one other a part of the corporate has been simply as important – translating these tales into experiences folks can bodily step into.
That philosophy now extends nicely past the parks. Below D’Amaro’s management, Disney struck its large partnership with Epic Video games, and the outcomes can already be seen. Disneyland arrived as an island inside Fortnite. Percy Jackson acquired its personal devoted world. Groot turned purchasable as a sidekick, with Sew rumored to be subsequent. Even creations born inside Imagineering, just like the BDX Droids, are crossing again into movie with the forthcoming Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and different media.
For park friends and subscribers, this shift might imply extra funding, deeper immersion, and experiences that really feel extra linked than ever – whether or not you’re watching at house, strolling right into a park, or stepping right into a digital Disney universe.
In sensible phrases, that might imply extra interactive characters, tighter ties between Disney+ reveals and park experiences, and digital options that make a go to – or a rewatch – really feel extra private. The modifications will probably be delicate at first, constructing on what Disney is already rolling out:
- Smarter expertise within the parks and throughout the cruise line
- Extra immersive characters and sights
- Deeper integrations between Disney+ and bodily experiences
- Expereinces, each at house and in individual, designed to encourage continued engagement
Time and time once more, I’ve heard Imagineers remind me that Disney doesn’t use expertise for expertise’s sake. It makes use of it to push storytelling ahead. Whereas Iger expanded Disney’s content material portfolio and strengthened its IP engine, D’Amaro has been main the cost on how followers really step into these tales and interact with them. That shift – from watching to experiencing – is what makes this second really feel thrilling, and why I’m optimistic about the place Disney goes subsequent.
That ambition comes with actual prices, but in addition actual alternative. If Disney will get this proper the payoff isn’t simply greater experiences; it’s higher ones. The sort that make a sequence linger longer, a park go to really feel extra alive, and the magic prolong far past the display.
If Disney’s future is about letting followers step deeper into the worlds they love – not simply watch them – placing a parks-first chief in cost could possibly be precisely the correct of magic.
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