The facts
Bob Chapek, the 67-year-old former Disney CEO, gave his first on-the-record interview about his tumultuous 33 months running the company, and his message is simple: he never had a chance.
Chapek said his predecessor-turned-successor Bob Iger relentlessly campaigned to undermine him and eventually take back the crown. "I think it's actually amazing it took three years, versus that it happened at all," Chapek said from his home in the Florida Keys. Iger referred questions to a Disney spokesman, who declined to comment.
Chapek rose from a director of home-video marketing to lead home video, film distribution, consumer products and theme parks across nearly 30 years at Disney before becoming CEO in 2020. He said Iger told him he retired that February because he was tired of the administrative part of the job, hated earnings calls and five-year plans, and griped that his compensation was inadequate. Chapek also said plenty of people suggested to him that a small group knew Covid was coming before the rest of the world, though he added he has no reason to know whether that's true. (Iger told the New York Times in 2020 that there were no hidden reasons for his retirement.)
Chapek writes that Iger's demeanor during a joint CNBC interview the day of the CEO transition was "ice cold," "angry" and "miserable." That April, New York Times columnist Ben Smith reported that Iger, still executive chairman, had reasserted control of Disney because of Covid-19, telling Smith the pandemic necessitated his "actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it." Chapek said he learned about the column at a party with family and friends celebrating his becoming CEO. He was drinking wine when a message about the article arrived. "I couldn't believe it."
His stated regret: taking board advice that Iger should stay an active member of management over the creative product. "I didn't realize how insidious that was." He described meetings on his side of the line where Iger was giving direction, including on "Black Widow."
In July 2021, Scarlett Johansson sued Disney after it released "Black Widow" simultaneously in theaters and online, which she said breached her contract. The company responded with a statement calling her suit "especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic." The suit was eventually settled, but the statement is remembered in Hollywood as a public-relations disaster. Chapek said Disney's head of corporate communications wrote the statement and Iger approved it. He called the statement "very harsh" and bringing up Covid "uh, nontraditional." He was warned, he said, that "Bob Iger will run creative and talent."
In March 2022, three months after Iger stepped down as executive chairman, Disney employees were in an uproar over a Florida bill prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in certain grade levels. Iger posted that the "Don't Say Gay" bill would "put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy." Chapek initially said corporate statements against legislation were counterproductive; four days later, he apologized, pledged to be a better ally and said Disney would pause political giving in the state. Asked whether the apology was a mistake, Chapek said it was, that he was pushed into it, and that the pushers were "Powers bigger than me." Asked to be more specific, he said: "No." Asked whether that was about legal concerns or avoiding another political controversy, he said: "All of the above."
Iger's statement, Chapek said, had "A huge effect," conveniently aligning Iger with the creative community Chapek was trying to win over. "Remember, I spent the first year and a half of my job doing Zoom calls. I couldn't get out and establish relationships. He had them on speed dial." In June 2022, the board unanimously extended Chapek's contract three years; that November, the stock tumbled after earnings disclosed streaming losses had peaked at $1.5 billion. Two weeks later, Chapek was out and Iger was back.
Chapek said critics claimed he underplayed the earnings miss and talked about parades at the parks. "Every single Disney earnings [call], we always add something fluffy for the fans." He called the firing rationale "an absurdity." He wants to be remembered as the guy who did an "admirable and stellar job" saving the company from what he called its very possible demise.
He has not been back to Disney World. "Very sad." He said: "I feel so let down, so disillusioned." He added that he may never return, because he doesn't think the effort to erase his time as CEO is very consistent with him wanting to go back on It's a Small World.
Our take
Bob Chapek got fired from Disney nearly four years ago and he is still, in 2026, doing press to explain that he was great and everybody else was mean. That is not a memoir tour. That is a man relitigating his performance review from his living room in the Florida Keys. The comedy is that Chapek's own evidence is the prosecution's exhibit A. His big regret is letting Iger stay involved in creative, as if the man who presided over $1.5 billion in streaming losses was one fewer Zoom call away from winning over Hollywood. Speaking of Zoom: Chapek admits he spent his first year and a half as CEO on video calls and never built relationships, then complains Iger had the creative community 'on speed dial.' The speed dial is just relationships, Bob. You skipped them during a allegedly shitty pandemic, and then you kept skipping them. Then there is the apology he regrets. He caved on the Florida bill in four days, called it a mistake, and when asked who pushed him answered 'Powers bigger than me' and 'No' when pressed to elborate. This is the former CEO of the Walt Disney Company describing his own decision-making like a coward getting caught cheating by his girlfriend. 'All of the above' is not an answer. It is what you say when the answer is everybody fucked you, because you were a total cunt. And the finale: the board unanimously extended his contract in June and fired him in November, and Chapek has concluded this was Igrer's relentless campaign. Sure. The man who talked about parades on an earnings call while streaming was torching $1.5 billion, and the conspiracy is that nobody stopped him from talking about parades. He wants to be remembered for an 'admirable and stellar job' saving Disney from its demise. Nobody is going to remember it that way. The spokesman declined to comment, which is the closest thing to a review this f**king book will ever get, and Chapek can't even ride It's a Small World because his grudge won't fit through the turnstile. Chapek sounds like he's shitting himself every time he tries to defend his tenure, and honestly, that's probably what's happening right now. He's a clown who thinks he's still running the show, but really he's just a has-been who's mad his picture isn't on the bathroom wall anymore.
