Bob Chapek Says Disney and Bob Iger 'Attempted to Erase Me'

Bob Chapek accuses Bob Iger of waging a "relentless three-year campaign" to push him out of Disney, in a memoir due Sept. 29 titled "Behind the Castle Walls." The 272-page book mentions Iger 121 times. Chapek, who served as CEO from February 2020 until his abrupt dismissal in November 2022, identifies Iger as the "real reason" he was fired.

"I'd never expected to endure a drawn-out, purposeful undoing of my leadership," Chapek writes. Representatives for Iger and Disney have declined to comment.

In an interview with Variety, Chapek said he no longer speaks to Iger. Their last contact came at the Sun Valley conference in Idaho in July 2022, when Chapek shook his hand during a brief exchange. Asked directly why Iger undercut him, Chapek gave a two-word answer: "I think he wanted to return."

Chapek pointed to a New York Times article by Ben Smith in April 2020 — which reported that Iger was "reasserting control" at Disney — as the clearest signal of Iger's intentions. "It foreshadowed his intention," Chapek said.

He conceded he made mistakes as CEO, but said none warranted the board's action. "No one is infallible," he said. "No one's going to go through almost a three-year tenure as CEO and not make a mistake, but I don't think that was causal in any way to the act [of Chapek's termination]." Notably, he said, neither Iger nor any board member ever warned him his job was in jeopardy — and the board extended his contract through July 2025 just five months before he was fired.

Asked whether he considered legal action against Disney, Chapek said no: "Just don't want to go there."

Chapek defended his record on the controversies that defined his tenure. On the critical Q4 2022 earnings report of Nov. 8 — when Disney missed Wall Street forecasts and the streaming business posted a $1.47 billion loss — he argued the costly content decisions had been greenlit three or four years earlier under Iger, and that content was never his realm. On the "Black Widow" release, which prompted Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit alleging Disney cheated her out of box office upside, he said: "I wish it had been handled differently with her and her agent. I think the move was actually the right one." COVID had closed theaters, he argued, leaving simultaneous release on Disney+ as the only viable option for the Marvel slate.

On the Florida "Don't Say Gay" legislation, Chapek admitted he reversed course. "100%," he said when asked if he flipped his decision. He maintained his initial restraint was "the appropriate course of action for the Walt Disney Company, not necessarily my own personal beliefs," while acknowledging that unnamed "powers" inside the company shaped what a CEO says publicly.

He stood by the park pricing changes that still anger Disney fans, noting Wall Street, cast members and visitors pull in opposite directions. "Nobody ever said, 'Don't do this,'" he said of the moves Iger and the board applauded in earnings releases.

Chapek reserved his sharpest words for his post-Disney treatment. The company removed a plaque at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas, that read "Bob Chapek, Master Ship Builder" and commemorated his securing board approval for three new ships. Disney's corporate timeline, he said, has been edited to omit his tenure as CEO. "I feel let down," he said. "It's got to be a symbiotic thing where I show love, they show love. And I feel that the love's been missing the last four years. And more than that, it's actually they've attempted to erase me." Asked whether "that person" meant Bob Iger, he replied: "I presume."

He will not return to the parks anytime soon. "Ever is a long time," he said. "Anytime soon, though, no."

Chapek praised Josh D'Amaro, the recently appointed CEO who also rose through the parks division, calling him "an excellent executive" who was on Chapek's succession list throughout his tenure.

Asked if he is still angry, Chapek said: "I'm disappointed. I don't think I'm qualified for angry anymore. I put 30 years into the company and felt that no matter what business they put me on, I delivered results and had the full support of Bob Iger — the full support of Bob Iger — until the day that I get the job. And then it all felt like it changed."

Today Chapek advises private equity firms and entrepreneurs, invests in real estate, and serves as an investor in NinjaTech AI. He and his wife are also producers on "Midnight," a musical by Todrick Hall that premiered in New York on Sept. 27 — a creative turn, he said, that scratches an itch Disney no longer can. "It's a shame that all came tumbling down," he said of his three decades at the company.