If Iger is gone why is this about him? Odd, no?
I always thought Iger was stepping to the side to avoid animosity if things went south during 2020-21 so the new guy, Chapek, looked to me to be a pre-emptive scapegoat and ran with it instead of taking the hit, good for him. Disney now feels way more forward thinking with how it's been handling female roles, and we are 51% of the population so it's quite a big thing. Originally, the Disney+ icon options were on the sexist side, the characters weren't always that representative of the real world while the new culture is pulling strong females who don't need saving more out front, which I like. The female positioning was getting antiquey and stale, I love the princesses but that being the only flavor of female represented was a bit much.
I liked the way the parks ran under Eisner back when the whole thing was a pleasant show. Under Iger, as a guest and fan, I felt very alienated by the strategies which plainly aimed at newbies over lifers, all my collections vanished (so many just got ruined by lack of regard) and everything felt so sanitized and focused on timeshares and dining plans instead of rides and the experience. Really, I could take it or leave it and plainly the parks felt the same about me. While I haven't been back I do get a general sense of a shift back towards Eisner's fans first philosophy with the way the Star Wars series have been handled, with the stories shown from a fans point of view. I hope it's not all going to take a step back, I'm just not into it if that's the case.
The stock was bad last year because people weren't vacationing, this has nothing to do with leadership because Disney and every other travel and leisure stock had the same hit.