The Walt Disney Company has entered a new era.
On March 18, 2026, Josh D’Amaro officially became Disney’s new chief executive officer, succeeding longtime CEO Bob Iger and taking responsibility for one of the world’s most recognizable entertainment brands. D’Amaro is not an outsider brought in to radically remake the company. He is a longtime Disney executive who joined the company in 1998 and spent much of his career working across its theme parks, resorts, operations and experiences businesses. Before becoming CEO, he served as chairman of Disney Experiences, the division encompassing the company’s parks, resorts, cruises and related consumer businesses.
His promotion is significant because it places a leader closely associated with Disney’s physical, family-oriented experiences at the center of a company undergoing a much broader transformation.
Disney today is far more than a movie studio.
It is a combination of film and television studios, streaming services, sports networks, theme parks, cruise lines, consumer products, games and enormous intellectual-property franchises. The company’s strength comes from connecting those businesses — turning a movie into a streaming series, a theme-park attraction, merchandise, a game or a cruise experience.
D’Amaro has repeatedly emphasized that interconnectedness.
At Disney’s 2026 annual shareholder meeting, where he officially began his tenure as CEO, he described the company’s next chapter around creativity, innovation and connection. His message emphasized bringing the company’s businesses together and strengthening Disney’s ability to create experiences that audiences can connect with across multiple platforms.
Reuters likewise reported that D’Amaro entered the job with a focus on a more unified Disney and on accelerating the company’s ability to move intellectual property across movies, television, streaming, parks and other businesses. His background in Disney’s highly profitable Experiences division was an important factor behind his selection.
But almost immediately, D’Amaro’s leadership became associated with something far less glamorous: layoffs.
In April, Disney announced plans to eliminate approximately 1,000 positions as part of an effort to streamline operations. Reuters reported that D’Amaro informed employees about the cuts in an April 14 message, with many of the affected positions connected to marketing and related corporate functions.
The scale of the reduction is significant, but the circumstances are more complicated than the viral claim that D’Amaro simply arrived at Disney and “fired 1,000 employees.”
Reuters had already reported before the layoffs were formally announced that Disney was planning to eliminate as many as 1,000 positions, and that the restructuring plans had begun before D’Amaro officially assumed the CEO position in March.
That distinction matters.
D’Amaro inherited many of the problems he is now being asked to solve.
Disney has spent years restructuring itself in response to the disruption caused by the pandemic, the changing economics of television, the enormous cost of building a profitable streaming business and the increasingly competitive entertainment market.
The company has also been trying to make its businesses operate more efficiently after years of organizational complexity.
The new CEO therefore did not walk into an empty room and suddenly decide to start cutting jobs.
He inherited a company already in the middle of a difficult transformation.
Nevertheless, the timing of the layoffs has given the D’Amaro era a clear symbolic beginning.
A new CEO arrived.
A new corporate structure began taking shape.
And approximately 1,000 employees were told that their positions would disappear.
For supporters of D’Amaro, the cuts can be interpreted as evidence that the new CEO is willing to make difficult decisions instead of protecting inefficient structures.
For critics, they raise a different question: Can Disney restore its creative and emotional identity while simultaneously reducing the workforce responsible for creating, marketing and supporting that experience?
That tension will likely define much of D’Amaro’s early tenure.
But the controversy surrounding the new CEO goes beyond jobs.
It also involves something much more emotional: what kind of Disney does D’Amaro want to build?
That question has become especially prominent because of reports that traditional language is once again being heard at Disney World.
For years, Disney had deliberately moved away from some gendered greetings in its parks.
In 2021 and 2022, the company publicly discussed efforts to make its parks more inclusive, including changes to language used by cast members. Disney’s diversity and inclusion leadership said the company had removed gendered greetings such as “ladies and gentlemen” and “boys and girls” from live announcements and encouraged alternatives such as “hello, everyone” and “hello, friends.”
The changes became highly visible.
In 2021, Disney replaced the traditional “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” introduction at the Magic Kingdom’s Happily Ever After fireworks show with “Good evening, dreamers of all ages.” Disney said at the time that the change was part of its broader diversity and inclusion efforts.
That decision became a symbol in the broader American culture war.
To supporters, it represented a company attempting to make its public spaces more welcoming to guests who might not identify with traditional gender categories.
To critics, it represented something very different: another example of a beloved American brand abandoning familiar language in pursuit of corporate political correctness.
Now, several years later, traditional language has once again been heard in at least some Disney World announcements.
And that has created the perception that Disney is reversing course.
But perception and evidence are not always the same thing.
The most controversial part of the viral claim about D’Amaro is also the part that requires the most caution.
The claim says that Disney’s new CEO has “eliminated gender-neutral language,” brought back “Ladies and Gentlemen,” and launched a broader effort to restore a “common sense culture.”