Disney is not necessarily the biggest example of this phenomenon (in fact, execs who spoke to Deadline reportedly argued that they were doing way less kowtowing than Amazon or Google), but it is an example. The writing was already on the wall when CEO Bob Iger, a reliable donor to Democratic campaigns, kept his money out of the 2024 presidential race. More recently, the company has fallen in line with the anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) pressure and has even gone so far as to remove certain content warnings from older works. According to Deadline, Disney staffers aren’t thrilled.
“It’s like Chapek on steroids!” one insider complained. “What’s next? Where do we go from here? What do we stand for now, keeping MAGA happy? … This is not what I expected from Bob—I thought he had our back.” Another insider expressed “embarrassment” over the settlement with Trump over the ABC News defamation case, which included not only a payout but a forced apology from anchor George Stephanopoulos; the insider referred to the December 2024 settlement as “the beginning of the capitulation.” And there was already noise that folks who worked on Win Or Lose were upset by the excising of a transgender storyline, but Deadline reports that “several longtime employees” referred to the move as the company “pandering to MAGA.”
Deadline observes that Bob Iger, usually a visible presence at the studio’s tentpole premieres, didn’t pose for any photos with Anthony Mackie or the team behind Captain America: Brave New World at the Marvel premiere. A source told the outlet that “there’s no there there, it was probably a matter of timing.” But there is apparently a “strong consensus [across] a swath of Disney employees that the current Iger era is nothing like the last,” in which they felt their leadership was more likely to stand up for their values. The perception that Disney is bowing to conservative cultural bullying is affecting not just staffers on the inside but also “talent relationships,” according to the scuttlebutt that Deadline is picking up. Which celebs are souring on Disney remains to be seen, but the coming months and years of Trump admin are certain to separate the wheat from the chaff. You can read the full report here.
