The Walt Disney Company could vote on its next CEO soon, and the person considered to be the top candidate for the job, Josh D’Amaro, is the person spearheading the Disney x Fortnite project and the executive who wants to do more with gaming overall going forward.
The Wall Street Journal reported that current CEO Bob Iger is planning to resign prior to the end of his current contract on December 31 this year. A meeting will take place this week at the company’s headquarters in Burbank, California to vote on his replacement, the report added.
The WSJ report added that Iger would stay on for “several months” to help mentor the incoming CEO, while it’s possible Iger could remain a board member after he steps away as CEO.
A report from Bloomberg stated that D’Amaro is indeed the top choice to become the next Disney CEO. Disney, however, is not confirming anything at the moment. “The board has not yet selected the next CEO of the Walt Disney Co. and once that decision is made, we will announce it,” a spokesperson said.
Iger left his position as Disney CEO in February 2020, but came back in 2022 later after Bob Chapek was ousted as CEO. Other people said to be in the mix to become the next Disney CEO include Disney entertainment bosses Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, along with sports executive Jimmy Pitaro.
The current CEO of Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson, was reportedly considered for the job at one point.
D’Amaro started at Disney all the way back in 1998 and rose through the ranks to become the current chairman of Disney Experiences. This sprawling business unit runs Disney’s theme parks and cruise ships, as well as consumer products, including video games.
In that role, D’Amaro is leading the effort to grow Disney’s presence in video games, in part through a $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games for a Fortnite project.
It was previously reported that D’Amaro wants to give video games “a bigger role at the company.” The report said D’Amaro is also looking to integrate “gaming technology” into Disney’s creative processes.
Disney already uses Epic’s Unreal technology for filmmaking, with The Mandalorian employing the Fortnite tech to project scenes onto LED screens surrounding the physical set. The executive has previously discussed why gaming is so important to Disney.
D’Amaro said Walt Disney himself was an “adventurer” and a “risk-taker,” going on to say what Disney is now trying to achieve through Fortnite is an extension of that spirit.
“We should never rest on past success. We should always look for the next big idea, the next big challenge,” he said. “If we’d always relied on what worked in the past, the Walt Disney Company might not exist today. As consumer preferences continue to shift, we have to adapt, or we are going to be left behind.”
Characters and content from Disney’s Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar brands, among others, will be represented in Fortnite. Disney and Epic have yet to officially unveil any specific projects in Fortnite tied to Disney, but many are hoping to see some kind of “virtual Disney World.”
For more, be sure read GameSpot’s rundown of everything we know about the Disney x Fortnite project.
Disney was at one time a bigger player in the world of video games, as the company had its own dedicated internal gaming division with Disney Interactive Studios. Disney also operated the once-popular Disney Infinity “toys-to-life” brand, but it also shuttered. Today, Disney’s efforts in gaming mainly involve licensing its brands to other companies. In 2019, Iger spoke candidly about Disney’s struggles making and publishing games internally, admitting, “We haven’t been particularly good…”