It’s been rumored for some time that Kathleen Kennedy was on the verge of leaving as the President of Lucasfilm, and this week that rumor became a reality when Kennedy's retirement was officially announced. Despite the occasional controversy, it’s hard to say she doesn’t leave her post a resounding success, with movies that have grossed over $5 billion at the global box office, plus launching the franchise’s first live-action television shows.
It’s a job so impressive that, apparently, the feeling was that no single person could take it over. Instead of a single new President, the decision was made to promote co-presidents, with Dave Filoni also continuing as the company’s Chief Creative Officer, and Lynwen Brennan handling the business side of things as Co-President. It’s a model that has worked well so far for DC Films, and it’s one I hope the Disney committee currently undertaking a search for a new CEO takes note of.
Lucasfilm Went With Two New Leaders, And So Should Disney
Bob Iger is set to step down as CEO of The Walt Disney Company (again) at the end of 2026. We’ve been promised his replacement will be named early this year, which is to say, literally any time now. While the studio has reportedly been looking both inside and outside of the company for a replacement, two names have risen to the top. Disney Experiences chief Josh D’Amaro and Disney Studios co-head Dana Walden.
By all reports, it is a two-person race between these two. Walden has the creative relationships in Hollywood, an area that Disney’s last attempt at a new CEO, Bob Chapek, was found lacking. D’Amaro runs the side of the business that, between theme parks and consumer products, basically prints money. Each candidate has strengths, and each has weaknesses.
So, here’s a (not entirely) radical idea: as the meme says, why not both? There’s nothing saying Disney can’t have co-CEOs. While it’s uncommon, some companies have done it. Barring that, elevating one of the pair to CEO and the other to another executive title, like President, would put the two working together, each playing to their strengths, putting Disney on the best path forward.
It would work, and the reason I know it would work at Disney is that it’s happened before.
Disney’s Most Successful Times Came When Two People Were In Charge
While Disney has never had two CEOs before, it has had two people at the top of the company, and that was the case at the very beginning. Before it was The Walt Disney Company, the company was founded as the Disney Bros. Studio, and there were two Disneys, Walt and his brother Roy.
Walt was the creative genius who spearheaded crazy ideas like the first cel animated feature film and even crazier ideas like Disneyland. Roy figured out how in the world to pay for them all. There’s no argument that the style worked. Disney became a force in the entertainment industry.
It happened again in the mid-1980s when Disney brought in its first, and thus far only, CEO from outside the company, Michael Eisner. At the same time, it hired Frank Wells as President. The duo was often compared to Walt and Roy, with Eisner the creative mind and Wells the more business-focused executive.
Wells tragically passed away in 1994 at age 62, and he was never adequately replaced. One has to wonder if some of the decisions that Disney made in the late ’90s and early 2000s that didn’t work out would have happened quite the same way if there had been somebody working alongside Eisner.
D'Amaro and Walden are both great talents, and the company needs to keep them both. It's not uncommon for anybody passed over in a CEO hunt to go looking for greener pastures. Disney needs to prevent that here. Promoting both of them is how to make sure you don't lose one of them.
Either Josh D’Amaro or Dana Walden would likely make for great CEOs, but neither one of them is going to be great at everything. Together, however, they may be able to truly do it all. If one studio inside Disney realizes that two heads are better than one, then surely the company founded by two brothers will realize that too, right?
