Who’s going to replace Disney CEO Bob Iger in the top job? Netflix chief Ted Sarandos might be in the running – but he’s played it down.
The Walt Disney Company will be announcing the replacement for its CEO, Bob Iger, in early 2026. The last time Iger retired and was replaced, in came Bob Chapek as its CEO, and he got the heave-ho and a large cheque a few years later. Iger was recalled from the golf course and persuaded to have one last stint at the top.
But that stint is coming to an end and Iger, now aged 73, is set to step away for good this time around.
Yet who’s going to be that CEO? Well, some early speculation has suggested Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, might be a candidate. If that’s the case though, Sarandos doesn’t seem to have noticed. He’s been specifically asked whether he’d be interested in moving over to the Mouse House, and he simply said that it’s “not even on my mind.”
Sarandos, who’s been with Netflix so far for 25 years and counting, remains adamant that “honestly, I think what we are doing is so exciting”, and pretty much shut down any lines of conversation regarding the Disney job.
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But is he a viable candidate? He’s certainly the kind of success story that Disney would have its eye on, but also, the current expectation is that the company will go with an internal candidate. Mind you, Bob Chapek was an internal candidate, and perhaps that’s why the successor search is feeling so prolonged but also so quiet.
James Gorman, who takes on the role of Disney chairman early next year, is the person tasked with finding the new CEO for the company. Whether Gorman and Sarandos have had any conversation about the role at all is unclear, but as Disney’s ongoing gamble on Disney+ remains key to the future of the company, it’s hard to imagine a Netflix conversation or two hasn’t happened.
The official announcement of the new CEO is due early next year.
