Bob Iger and the hollow capitalism of Disney - Washington Examiner Magazine
Out now online and in print next week for the Washington Examiner Magazine!
The Walt Disney Company is moving on without Bob Iger, its CEO of 15 years. Some would look at what he’s accomplished — Disney’s entry into the streaming wars with Disney+; its purchase of Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel Entertainment; the opening of Disney Shanghai — and say Iger’s tenure was the work of a visionary.
It was anything but.
Back in 2015, Iger knew he’d disappointed George Lucas, the fabled creator of Star Wars who begrudgingly sold his production company, Lucasfilm, to Disney in 2012. Disney had wrapped production on the first new installment in the Star Wars franchise since Revenge of the Sith. Not a soul could get Lucas to commit to attending the premiere of The Force Awakens — not even Kathleen Kennedy, the new head of Lucasfilm, whom Lucas had installed just before his exit in a backhanded play to select his successor before Iger could. Lucas had said that Disney covered no new ground in its addition to Star Wars, finding its reboot “unoriginal” and derivative. The reboot Iger oversaw, in his view, lacked for vision.