Josh D'Amaro became chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, succeeding Bob Iger. D'Amaro previously served as head of Disney's experiences division.

Disney's stock has barely moved in the last decade, and the company's share price has fallen to about half its all-time high from five years ago. Media analysts have said that Disney should focus on developing new franchises, invest in video games, and address artificial intelligence and declining television networks.

Brandon Katz, a content strategy director at Greenlight Analytics, described how Disney could evaluate projects across multiple businesses. Katz said, "The real question for Disney now isn't just, 'Is this piece of content a hit?' It's: 'Can this piece of content live across parks, merchandise, games, and streaming?'"

Disney's experiences division invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games. Fortnite players can explore a Disney-themed virtual world and wear skins of Disney characters such as Captain Hook and Frozone. Disney's games division is moving under Dana Walden's oversight alongside the streaming and content teams.

Disney has a deal with OpenAI to explore interactivity in its content. Disney plans to allow fans to create and browse AI-generated short-form vertical clips on Disney+. Streaming engagement on Disney+ has stagnated in the U.S. in recent years.

Bob Iger suggested selling the ABC television network and later retracted that remark months later. Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at Lightshed Partners, said, "We view linear TV as a distraction for D'Amaro and not where we, nor investors, want to see Disney allocating capital and resources." ESPN was recently valued at $30 billion. The National Football League owns a 10% stake in ESPN and sold the NFL Network to ESPN.

Early in the streaming wars, Hollywood studios spent billions on new shows and movies to compete with Netflix.