The keys to the Magic Kingdom are about to change hands. The Walt Disney Company has confirmed who will succeed Bob Iger – and if you’re a fan of Disney Parks or Disney Cruise Line, the choice won’t come as a surprise. Josh D’Amaro will take the reins as Disney’s next CEO on March 18.
D’Amaro is a 28-year Disney veteran whose career has been shaped largely inside the company's parks business, most recently as the head of Disney Experiences. He’s been overseeing one of the most ambitious expansion periods in the company’s history, with tens of billions of dollars being poured into new cruise ships, major park expansions, and entirely new destinations – from a long-awaited Magic Kingdom expansion at Walt Disney World to an Avatar-themed land coming to Disneyland, and a brand-new Disney park planned for Abu Dhabi.
Iger’s return was meant to stabilize Disney after a turbulent transition – but the company he’s preparing to leave now looks very different from the one he re-joined. Like Bob Chapek, who served as Disney CEO between Iger’s two tenures, D’Amaro comes from the parks side of the business – but he’s stepping into a very different Disney, and brings a different skill set shaped by how experiences, streaming, and IP now intersect. The center of gravity has shifted, as Experiences aren’t just a pillar of the business anymore – they’ve become a driving force.
Disney’s Experiences business crossed the $10 billion revenue mark for the first time in the first fiscal quarter of 2026. Parks, cruise ships, and live entertainment aren’t simply funding Disney’s future – they’re increasingly shaping it.
Much like technology trends that ebb and flow, Disney’s content and characters remain the foundation of the overall experience – but the way people want to engage with them has evolved. Audiences don’t just want to watch their favorite stories anymore – they want to step inside them in more meaningful ways. Immersion has become the differentiator.
You can feel that shift when you walk into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and encounter Stormtroopers, Rey, or the Mandalorian as you wander Batuu before piloting the Millennium Falcon – with Darth Vader on the horizon. Or when you meet Marvel heroes at Avengers Campus, race through Radiator Springs at Disney California Adventure, or come face-to-face with Olaf in the Frozen land at Disneyland Paris. These aren’t just attractions; they’re living extensions of Disney’s worlds.
Entertainment – movies, TV, and streaming – remains critically important. But as Iger has described it, there’s now an internal push-and-pull between Disney’s Entertainment and Experiences teams, each competing to be the company’s growth engine.
Choosing D’Amaro makes clear just how central parks, cruise lines, and Consumer Products are to Disney’s future. Fans want more opportunities to interact with iconic characters, to share those moments, and to make the magic tangible.
Just as importantly, Disney’s entertainment engine looks to be in steady hands. Alongside D’Amaro’s appointment, Dana Walden has been named President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company, placing the company’s film, TV, and streaming businesses under a single creative leader who will report directly to him. Walden has already been overseeing Disney’s entertainment and streaming operations, and her expanded role signals continuity and confidence on the content side.
Together, D’Amaro and Walden are likely to sharpen Disney’s entertainment division while expanding its reach across streaming, film, and television.
For many fans, Disney+ is no longer the finish line. It’s the entry point, or the stopover. You watch a series, then you want to experience it. You visit a park, then you go back and rewatch. Maybe you jump into a connected gaming universe that extends the story even further.
Disney’s bread and butter has always been characters and stories that endure, and Iger’s landmark acquisitions didn’t just add franchises; they fundamentally reshaped Disney’s creative gravity. But since 1955, another part of the company has been just as essential – translating those stories into experiences people can physically step into.
That philosophy now extends well beyond the parks. Under D’Amaro’s leadership, Disney struck its massive partnership with Epic Games, and the results can already be seen. Disneyland arrived as an island inside Fortnite. Percy Jackson received its own dedicated world. Groot became purchasable as a sidekick, with Stitch rumored to be next. Even creations born inside Imagineering, like the BDX Droids, are crossing back into film with the forthcoming Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and other media.
For park guests and subscribers, this shift could mean more investment, deeper immersion, and experiences that feel more connected than ever – whether you’re watching at home, walking into a park, or stepping into a digital Disney universe.
In practical terms, that could mean more interactive characters, tighter ties between Disney+ shows and park experiences, and digital features that make a visit – or a rewatch – feel more personal. The changes will likely be subtle at first, building on what Disney is already rolling out:
- Smarter technology in the parks and across the cruise line
- More immersive characters and attractions
- Deeper integrations between Disney+ and physical experiences
- Expereinces, both at home and in person, designed to encourage continued engagement
Time and time again, I’ve heard Imagineers remind me that Disney doesn’t use technology for technology’s sake. It uses it to push storytelling forward. While Iger expanded Disney’s content portfolio and strengthened its IP engine, D’Amaro has been leading the charge on how fans actually step into those stories and engage with them. That shift – from watching to experiencing – is what makes this moment feel exciting, and why I’m optimistic about where Disney goes next.
That ambition comes with real costs, but also real opportunity. If Disney gets this right the payoff isn’t just bigger experiences; it’s better ones. The kind that make a series linger longer, a park visit feel more alive, and the magic extend far beyond the screen.
If Disney’s future is about letting fans step deeper into the worlds they love – not just watch them – putting a parks-first leader in charge could be exactly the right kind of magic.
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