Just as the Jedi had to vanish once the Emperor took power, it would seem that fans of Star Wars will need to wait for a better day as Iger takes control once more.
So, here we are. There’s no question that the last decade has been tumultuous for Star Wars fans. At the time of the Disney Acquisition of Lucasfilm, the fanbase had already gone through a schism of OT vs. Prequel fans. At that time, it seemed that nothing could be more divisive. At the time of the purchase, some fans felt a sense of relief. Disney had been flying high with the acquisition of Marvel, the Pirates of the Caribbean series was still generally beloved, and not too far in the rear window was Tron: Legacy, which was expected to re-ignite that franchise.
Knowing that new Star Wars movies would be forthcoming shook off some of the doldrums fans had been experiencing – fears that the property had become stagnant and directionless. There were fears, of course – especially surrounding the EU, and even more especially when the determination was made that these stories would be converted to “Legends.” In 5 short years, the Holy Wars and Inquisitions within the fanbase would make the OT vs. Prequel spats feel like a skirmish. Who is to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around, though the lion’s share can be placed at Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedys feet. Since the conclusion of the false sequel trilogy, bright spots have been rare. There have been isolated spots of hope, which have all been almost immediately crushed by contravening forces. All those that questioned whether there was actually a war going on within Lucasfilm or Disney as a whole should now have their doubts silenced.
Like Emperor Palpatine, somehow, Iger has returned.
Of course, the explanation for this return is much simpler than “Dark Science, cloning, or secrets only the Sith knew.” In many ways, one could argue that Iger never really left – he just made someone else a scapegoat for his own failures and unbridled ambition. But even then…the explanation isn’t THAT simple. For the time being, all we can do is speculate – but sometimes speculation is valuable. We can’t know the exact shape of what went down, but I think we can posit some facts that will help us gain degree of confidence:
1. Bob Iger has been agitating against Bob Chapek since before his official exit, and has likely been whispering in the boards ears for some time. Evidence for point 1: Iger has badmouthed Chapek at every turn publicly, and at strategic moments. An argument could be made that stepping away was done to avoid blame for the overall company trajectory and what would happen during the COVID shutdowns, with Chapek being a fall guy for the issues on the horizon.
2. After the Q4 earnings call, Bob actually did have the full support of the board to institute a hiring freeze and finally begin cleaning up the company. Evidence for point 2: The board extended Chapeks contract for a 3 year period in June. This was an acknowledgement of what needed to be done after the Reedy Creek debacle, and a signal that Chapek would allowed to do what was necessary to get the company under control. No board would pay the penalties for breaking such a contract extension if there were doubts about pressing forward.
3. Something drastic was about to happen for the board to reverse themselves and fire Chapek – it had to be stopped immediately. Evidence for point 3: The Q4 call itself. The content of such calls are not a mystery to the board beforehand – they knew that Chapek would be instituting a hiring freeze and cutting powerful agitators within the company. Chapek was given the sword, and was going to begin wielding it. (The recent step-down of Michelle Rejwan was likely a test of this authority).
What could have changed between November 8th and November 20th? Disney IS in a bad place – almost every movie released this year has lost money. Star Wars has been mortally wounded for some time, and Marvel is going down the same path. Pixar is dead. The parks are expensive and in disrepair, and the country is in a recession. All of these demand a correction, but replacing Chapek with Iger is a vote for the status quo. So what gives? As much as I would like to say that this was about Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige being about to have a “Come-to-Jesus” moment and running to Iger for support, even those weren’t big enough sacred cows for this to be plausible.
This has to be about Reimagine Tomorrow, DEI and ESG. The biggest thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks is Elon Musk cleaning house at Twitter. Up until this point, the tech CEOs and oligarchs have managed to control narratives quite effectively. Megacorporations working hand-in-glove with government powers have used their power to extend control in truly frightening ways. Hedge and Asset Management funds like Black Rock and Vanguard leverage their holdings to require corporations to persue their political causes, at the expense of the purpose of a corporation – profit. Imagine a mosquito that could suck ALL of the blood from your body without popping. Such a creature has no care for your well-being, but lives off of your lifeblood – a parasite.
Largest Disney Share Holders
The Vanguard Group, Inc. 7.49% 136,614,265 14,554,883,793
BlackRock Fund Advisors 4.09% 74,577,472 7,945,483,867
SSgA Funds Management, Inc. 3.84% 69,950,715 7,452,549,176
State Farm Investment Management … 1.87% 33,996,592 3,621,996,912
Geode Capital Management LLC 1.71% 31,168,854 3,320,729,705
T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (I… 1.32% 24,123,546 2,570,122,591
Northern Trust Investments, Inc.(… 1.31% 23,890,556 2,545,299,836
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (… 0.96% 17,445,422 1,858,635,260
Norges Bank Investment Management 0.81% 14,789,436 1,575,666,511
BlackRock Investment Management (… 0.71% 12,915,590 1,376,026,959
The powers-that-be do not care whether Disney entertains you. They don’t even care if Disney makes money short-term in comparison to a broader goal of restructuring the economic system. They care about whether or not the narrative is challenged. If they control the message, and who can speak, they can leverage the assets they control to shape the world we live in. They wish to pick the winners and losers. If they can export their DEI programs to other corporations, they can invent the criteria by which your work is governed – and in a bad economy, it is riskier to try to move elsewhere. In a world operating under these rules, a poor economy and a shrinking middle class work to the benefit of the elites, who remain in power and live high-on-the-hog. This is an awesome power, and why it is so important that we recognize that the tech giants benefitting from special privileges be treated as platforms and not publishers. By all rights, they should be treated as utilities – just as the phone companies are.
Because Twitter has become more free, these masters of the message fear that a further rebellion is possible. This must be stopped at all costs. If Disney suddenly began divesting itself of its DEI groups and ESG initiatives, other corporations would follow suit. These corporate players likely believe that their government partners will make good on their threat to investigate Elon Musk. They want more than anything to regain their power to censor, shadowban, or derank conversation that does not fit the approved narrative. Want additional evidence? Wait to see if Apple and Google make good on their threats to delist Twitter from their application stores.
Star Wars is now truly dead for a generation that waited to see the original trio after the Empire was defeated. It cannot be revived. When I believed Chapek was about to begin making cuts, I had hope that there was a path forward. I even had a whole conversation prepped with WDW Pro that contained analysis of the exact reasons why Disney failed with Star Wars (it’s more complex than you think), and the steps that could be taken to fix it. None of that seems possible now.
So how do we fight back? Truth be told, it’s hard. You may contribute to Disney in ways you don’t realize. If you subscribe to Disney+, consider canceling your subscription — the type of content which offends many isn’t likely to slow down now. None of the things you see on television and movie screens was greenlit by Chapek; it all came from Iger. Chapek only had operational control of the company for less-than-a-year. That’s not enough time to even get a single property out the door. If your job has a 401k, find out if you have any Disney Holdings, or any holdings managed by Black Rock or Vanguard. If so, divest yourself of them. Don’t buy the merchandise. I had cancelled my Disney+ subscription when Gina Carano was fired. I only recently re-upped it when Andor launched so that I could get my reviews into the site in a timely manner, and in the hopes that things were finally beginning to change. I will finish reviewing Andor with the season finale on Wednesday, and then cancel it again. It’s a sad state for Disney and Star Wars that I feel compelled to make this change… but status quo is how you get status quo.
A lot of you were black-pilled before about Star Wars – it looks like I’m finally joining you. Even that bitter pill has a duration though. Who can say what will happen in five years, in ten years? Star Wars may be gravely damaged now but here is hope in the long-term, though there are yet no signs of how that hope might be made manifest.
I’ll continue to talk about Star Wars, just likely some of the older/more obscure stuff. I’ll also continue to talk about gaming, possibly some VR stuff – what would you like to see?
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let us know your thoughts!
Lorn, it’s only for 2 years so it’s not the end of the world. I highly doubt Chapek even had the spine to drain the swamp at Disney to begin with.
I understand it’s only for two years – but I think the timer to put Star Wars back on the road to recovery has now expired. Whether or not KK is ultimately out at the end of her contract, the chaos at this point has gone on for too long. Obi-Wan was a serious departure point for what remained of the fan-base, and Andor has failed to ignite passion. There is nothing serious in development on the cinematic side. Even if KK is ousted, the push for “messaging” content began under the Iger regime, largely because he wanted to be hands-off. He’s content to let the creatives call the shots – so at best, I can only foresee that the status quo will be maintained.
In my opinion, the only thing that might give them a positive spin (on the Star Wars front) is if KK is ousted and Jon Favreau is elevated – not necessarily to the head of Lucasfilm, but at least to the head of story development.
My suspicion is that what will happen instead is that Zaslav will now make good on his overtures to Favreau and headhunt him. Time will tell.
Also, not sure if your comment below to Joe was directed to him or to be (RE: Chapek being a savior even after a Marvel exec said he wasn’t), but I wanted to reply to that point as well:
I don’t think Chapek was ever really anybodys “choice.” He’s certainly not somebody who would champion an anti-woke cause, he’s a bean counter.
That can be a blessing or a curse, but he can certainly read box office receipts. Because he’s a money guy, he was naturally going to be predisposed to try to exert some control back over the company he was running. One of the wiser moves he made was making the creatives answer to marketing, and it sounds like Iger is already doing away with some of those initiatives. This is another mistake.
Was Chapek a savior? Definitely not. He’s probably not someone I would want in charge in normal times – but he was the closest thing that we had to someone who was going to at least TRY to moderate.
As to your doubts about whether he would have the spine to drain the swamp in the first place – I guess it depends on what you mean. I don’t think he would stop all woke content – he wants to make money in as many silos as he could. He certainly would want to get non-performing units into profitable territory. That’s something I think I could live with.
It’s also clear the board did think he was going to do something – so there’s that.
No corporation needs to be profitable if the value of their assets rises faster than the interest on their corporate debt, which is why “get woke, go broke” is a cope.
I’m with you.
We’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a long time. With the recent news that Chapek was going to clean shop it finally felt like that time had come.
After everything, I think this is finally it. I have no patience anymore. It’s never going to get better much less be in keeping with the Lucas era.
Star Wars is over and all they will do now is bring out it’s corpse, dust of the maggots and try to pretend that they’re about to announce the next greatest star Wars project since TESB.
No way will KK and her cronies now be extracted from Lucasfilm.
You honestly believed he was going to be the savior even after that one Marvel insider said otherwise on him ending the wokeness?
I like you guys at this site, I have watched Valiant Renegades live streams with WDWpro with interest because an alternative and lets be honest, conservative, take on some of the going’s on inside entertainment and specifically around Star Wars and the properties that Disney controls is interesting. Some of the problems WDWpro, yourself, VR etc. highlight and talk about are true and accurate and you’re addressing them in a thoughtful manner (here comes a big but)…. But honestly sometimes you all are like drunks looking for your keys where the light is good, and this take and some of the stuff spun out on the VR livestream was just fever swamp conspiracy theory stuff that just really reinforces your priors.
Twitter is not that important to Disney, to the world, to anything really, it’s not real life. Seriously. Elon Musk going on a lark and buying the dumb microblogging website after he tried not to buy it then poo-posting and baiting Trump to return so he can rhetorically have diarrhea on a daily basis and thus drive engagement on Twitter is not the genesis of a coup against Chapek because he was going to “destroy” ESG/CRT/DEI. Chapek doesn’t care one way or the other about that stuff, honestly. He didn’t want to court controversy and perceived, correctly as you and people like WDWpro have as well, that it hurts Disneys brand to be embroiled in culture war nonsense. I guarantee you had Chapek been able to execute his planned cuts (which honestly most of them will still take place, if only delayed by Iger’s return) DEI/ESG etc. would all be in place at Disney if only marginally sidelined by staff changes and emphasis on bottomline. But you know what? That might happen anyway. Disney is an important cultural institution in the United States, and to some extent the world, and we want to see it protected and not used as a political football and to the extent thats what Chapek wanted I supported him. But Chapek wanted to make something for everyone so that means he’d still want plenty of “woke” content if he thought it had an audience that would drive Disney+ subscriptions. Chapek didn’t run Parks division, and before that home video distribution as a secret conservative waiting for his chance to remake Disney or “preserve Walt’s legacy” or something. When you meet MOST people like a Chapek who are in a very intensive leadership role they really are generally not that political (in the culture war domestic political sense). Yes, there are exceptions and Iger may be one of them but on a daily basis I assure you he wasn’t checking Twitter or thinking about how he was going to limit the power of “woke” creatives within the company beyond better ROI. Chapek looked around at the disaster befalling the company in the wake of Covid, and yes some of the challenges presented by decisions made by Iger before his departure and said, “how do I maximize our return on investment?” Not, “this wokeness is poison I shall now extricate it before it consumes us”. Chapek may not have even heard the terms “woke” and “anti-woke” etc. until he was confronted by the controversy generated during the “Don’t say gay” dust up. He wisely wanted to stay out, but apparently was not strong enough a leader to ride out the ensuing storm and stick to his guns on that, which is a shame.
Again, as I stated earlier we probably agree with what constitutes many of the problems that plague contemporary Disney content. But really think you all need to dial it back when reading in to this a broader conspiracy to reassert the dominance of “wokeness” that Chapek planned to end or that shareholders were more interested in ESG scores than profits. If it really boils down to anything it’s this: Iger departed at the ideal time for his successor to fail, could that have been by design? I don’t know. Was Iger more invested in DEI and the appearance of being on the “right side of history” before his first “departure”? Absolutely. Was it what defined his tenure as CEO? Not really. He massively grew the business, was generally respected internally and by investors. He’s a better showman than Chapek and will have some great song and dance on how he’ll “save the day”, but will he? We don’t know, but the board seems to think he will.
Thank you for the comment – I do think you may be reading a little bit more into what I said above than what I would have intended, so I’d like to try to clarify a few things, if you’ll permit me:
Politically, am I a conservative? Obviously. I make no bones about that. That said, I have many friends who are not, and we can discuss things and leave as friends.
On conspiracy theories: I understand why you’re interpreting what I said above the way you are, but I want to give my take on conspiracies so you can understand how I’m approaching it. (I promise, I’m not a raving lunatic.)
I do not believe in the Illuminati. I do not believe in Lizard-people controlling the government. I don’t believe the moon-landing was hoaxed or that the earth is flat.
What I do believe is that fellow-travelers are going to fellow-travel.
That doesn’t mean that there’s coordination, or even awareness that such a thing is happening.
The analysis that I’m giving above is based strictly upon the following:
1. Bob Chapeks contract was extended for 3 years in June, before it had even expired, and on the first day of their retreat after the Reedy Creek debacle. This was a very clear message from the board, and the decision was unanimous.
2. The most advantageous time to make change is when your power is at an apex – and for Chapek, that means after a poor quarterly earnings report. It is at that point that the board can easily vest power in Chapek to make the necessary changes to right the financial ship through painful change.
3. Two weeks after that very thing happened – the entire board sacked him and replaced him with the old boss. As a result, they will have to pay out the remainder of his 3 year contract, plus the penalty for exercising their option to terminate. No reasonable board would do such a thing, especially after just announcing they were going to do the opposite – especially when doing so is going to make such a public splash. You don’t make this move unless you HAVE to.
As much as I would prefer that this was about the drop in the stock price over the last year, or the turmoil at Lucasfilm/Marvel – that’s not a reasonable position to stake out. As WDW Pro and others have mentioned, to Disney these are drops in the bucket. Parks and ESPN cover far more than these divisions would.
So what changed in the last two weeks?
Chapek started exercising his power, and Elon unshackled Twitter.
Unless evidence was introduced internally that Chapek was secretly a cannibal and this information was going to become public, something indicating an ENORMOUS financial hit is the only thing that could cause the board to flip in this way.
You HAVE to look at the institutional investors.
I don’t doubt that Iger also orchestrated much of this. He’s clearly wanted to be back in the drivers seat, and I don’t doubt that the board were keeping him in their back pocket. (You don’t suddenly ink a deal this huge in a two week period either, but I suspect there were backdoor conversations between the board and Iger as a contingency over the last year.)
There’s a strong possibility that this was the actual plan – Iger steps aside to try to avoid responsibility for the issues that were bubbling up surrounding COVID/Disney+ , Chapek steps in and is scapegoated, Iger shows up looking clean – but none of that explains the 3 year extension to Chapek, or the rapid about face in a two week spread.
I AGREE with you that Chapek himself was not an idealogue. I also agree that if he could put woke content aside more moderate content and profit from both, that would be an ideal situation for him. In fact, that’s a situation I could live with. (I even said as much above, in another comment)
Nowhere did I say that I thought Chapek was secretly planning an anti-woke crusade within Disney – but he was planning to bring his divisions to heel and make them produce, and a big part of that was muzzling Ton Newton and neutering the Reimagine Tomorrow group.
My analysis above is based on the fact that everything changed in two weeks, and Iger doesn’t represent change – he represents the status quo. Something else had to change for something this drastic to happen, and the only thing that could do it was a threat from the investors.
Back to “fellow-travelers going to fellow-travel”:
I don’t think there’s a coordinated group of people deciding these things in secret meetings together.
I do think that people and organizations who are powerful know where money and power live, and how to influence them. That these people make similar decisions doesn’t mean they’re coordinating or even aware of each others plans. If they move in lockstep, it may just mean they’re reading the same tea-leaves and coming to the same conclusions.
DEI and ESG initiatives are not instituted as a benefit to a corporation. Corporations only exist to produce profit – period. Social responsibility is not their purpose. But the influence of these programs does allow other objectives to be pursued by external entities using the power and influence of those corporations – which subverts their responsibilities to the bottom line and their (traditional) investors.
Big Hedge Funds (NON-traditional investors) can leverage this to their benefit – and do. The Tech Oligarchs have also been pushing these things, and it’s easy to see why. Saying that Twitter isn’t important is putting your head in the sand. If it wasn’t important, all those previously enjoying their bubble on it wouldn’t be screaming about Musk taking over. Every one of the social media sites has instituted their own version of content moderation, and have been enjoying the benefits of doing so to their fellow travelers benefit.
The meltdowns you’re seeing about Musk taking control should tell you something – as should the threats about investigating Musk.
Full disclosure: I’m not on Twitter. I’ve largely ignored it. I’m actually thinking about joining it now, but haven’t made a decision. What bothers me about the Twitter situation is how many people seem to be defending censorship – as though free speech is somehow bad.
The canard is usually brought out that “Your speech is free, but you don’t have freedom from consequences”, but it’s a bogus argument. If it weren’t, you wouldn’t be banning people or restricting their reach – you’d simply let the consequences fall.
Thanks for the thoughtful response and your clarifications. I think you’re absolutely right when you say “Fellow travelers” will arrive at the same conclusions independently I think thats what defines a lot of the “narrative” as it were but it is in fact a “both sides” issue though we know which side dominates an institution like Disney. Also just for clarity I wasn’t directing all my criticism at you specifically, but meant it also in reference to other people you’ve appeared with (WDWpro, VR, some of the others on VRs most recent stream) so I apologize if my response seemed in part to be over interpreting what you wrote. The Reimagine Tomorrow and DEI initiatives in the wake of 2020 really became prominent and frequently took over “all hands” meetings. Concurrently inclusion standards meant to serve as guidance but not check lists became very overt in their desired outcome and it was clear it was, in fact, a checklist. All this really being under Chapek, with Iger serving his not entirely retired advisory role.
I’m a little short on time tonight to respond but I’ll say I appreciate you clarifying your position on “conspiracy” versus shared desire for similar outcomes. But a few quick thoughts on things that popped out for me:
-I actually think that Chapeks power was hurt by poor earnings and his performance on the call. Like I mentioned Chapek was not the showman that Iger is. He answered questions in a calculated way, but didn’t have solutions with “pizzazz” for how they’d solve these declines in profit. I think cuts are coming, it might even be the exact same cuts Chapek intended but now they’ll be done by Iger who is a “steady hand on the wheel” known by investors and respected by the Disney adult super fans who have made Chapek an object of hate online and blame (not totally erroneously) for the nickel and diming the more casual infrequent park goer may just shrug at. Not to mention Iger considered himself a “creative” CEO and has the trust of the creative community. Chapek really stepped in it saying, “animation is for kids only” as far as many Disney animators were concerned. Him getting the axe and Iger’s return was treated like the second coming.
-You’re right about the purpose of the corporation being for profit. But I can tell you from surveys a significant, though no where near majority, number of people in a certain division cite a desire to promote “social change/justice” as the primary concern they have when going to work. 10% of your work force saying that is enough you’d have to worry about and account for it and its going to wind up shaping content for good and for ill.
-I’ll leave the Twitter thing aside but say I understand your position and I think back to the idea of “fellow travelers” for the very ideologically Twitter is overly influential and many people in decision making positions are overly invested in the sentiments of Twitter.
-IF there is any sort of nefarious conspiracy afoot I’d wager it has more to do with China and the Chinese market. Iger is the one that bent the knee to make the deals for Chinese distribution of films and for Shanghai Disney. Right now with China in constant ongoing Covid insanity and turmoil and the lack of film releases in China I’m certain they’d love someone to smooth that relationship out and re-open the Chinese market.
There is always the old EU (the true canon in my opinion) to talk about. Have book, comic, or game discussions could be fun.
I’ve been thinking about doing so, and likely will – maybe a few other things besides. Thanks for the feedback, it helps shape what we bring to you!
I’ve a series of stories to adapt for Star Wars movies that are built to topple Endgame in the end. When Disney is done tinkering with the hyperdrive on Star Wars I have their calculations ready for them.