Among other big and important news coming from this year's Star Wars Celebration, it's been announced that Disney's Bob Iger will be stepping down as the company's CEO come 2021. Iger announced his move to step away as the head of the House of Mouse late Friday morning by saying: “I’m expecting my contract to expire at the end of 2021. And I was going to say ‘and this time I mean it,’ but I’ve said it before. I’ve been CEO since October of 2005 and as I’ve said many times, there’s a time for everything and 2021 will be the time for me to finally step down.”
In the 15-ish years that Iger has been at the front of the studio, he's successfully welcomed companies like Pixar (in 2006), Marvel Entertainment (in 2009), Lucasfilm (in 2012), and most recently, 20th Century Fox (in 2019), into Disney's forever-extending arms that will one day BROTHER BEAR hug us all into submission. You might snicker at my little joke just now, but just you wait, it's only a matter of time before Disney reps will be going door-ro-door, enforcing mandatory fittings for Mouse Ears. It'll be some straight-up WALL-E business, and you can mark my words on that.
As Iger had mentioned in his statement above, he was expected to step down in 2018, though his tenue was extended to include 2019, and then again for an undertimed amount of time. If you ask me, Iger's monumental contributions to the company have more than earned him a comfy retirement, and whomever takes his place is going to have some mighty big shoes to fill.
”I’ve been engaged with the board for quite some time and there’s discussion about a succession and they’ve been engaged in a succession process, ” Iger continued. “And we continue to feel that they will be able to identify my successor on a timely enough basis so this company has smooth transition.”
Thankfully, we still have some time until Iger decides to join Merlin the Magician on his plans to retire in Bermuda. My guess is that he'll want to stick around until the dust from the 20th Century Fox/Disney merger can settle. He'll also want to insure a smooth launch for Disney's upcoming streaming service, Disney+. I suppose there's no rest for the wicked, and Iger is certainly poised to exit the company as a legacy leader of the timeless Disney brand.