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stealthily bought BAMTech, the company
Major League Baseball used to stream games,
which provided the technological back end. But
he knew the only way to bring people to a new
streaming service is with shows they can’t miss.
“There was a meeting. In the Disney board-
room,” says Iger, whose way of telling stories
is as consistent and methodical as his schedule.
Heads of the company’s creative shops were
told to come with pitches for the new service. “I
said, ‘We’re not creating another separate stu-
dio. You will all be the suppliers. No. 1 priority.’ ”
Of all the suggestions he heard that day, it
soon emerged that only The Mandalorian would
make it in time. It—and by extension Baby
Yoda—would have to carry the whole launch.
Iger was right to keep that black-eyed sweet
pea a secret, because the culture wasn’t going to
wait until gift season. The Internet was swiftly
flooded with Baby Yoda–bilia, including knit-
ted hats, baby items, love songs, DIY Christ-
mas ornaments and, of course, memes. So many
memes. Iger sent friends his favorite, a mash-up
of cosmological narratives featuring the Pope
holding Baby Yoda like a communion wafer.
in some circles, Iger is considered only mar-
ginally less alien than the creature he green-
lighted. He has worked for the same company
for 45 years, through 20 jobs and 14 bosses,
outlasting scores of rivals, apparently without
making any major enemies. “You will never
hear, ‘Bob Iger, he’s such a son of a bitch,’”
Gayle King—not even on his payroll!—said last
year. When he finally got a shot at the top spot,
however, there were doubts; the interview pro-
cess was so long and humiliating he ended up at
the doctor’s office with an anxiety attack. The
$65.6 million he earned last year seems to have
eased but not erased the memory.
Of course, Iger may have bet wrong. Dis-
ney has already spent $3 billion on the service
and plans to spend billions more on a venture
that may never turn a cent. The Star Wars and
Avengers narratives are reaching their outer at-
mospheres. Hong Kong Disneyland is almost
empty amid the ongoing protests. And he has
still not named a successor.
But for now, for just this moment, Iger is
unassailable. He’s transformed his company
from a stuffy media doyen into a sexy cultural
force. He can glide to retirement in 2021 on the
fumes of that triumph. Except it’s not his style.
When asked which IP he would buy if in some
fantasy world he could: Harry Potter, Gandalf
or James Bond, Iger smiles. “We’re not looking
to buy anything right now,” he says. “But I’ve
always been a huge James Bond fan.” □
‘HE WASN’T
AFRAID FROM A
CULTURAL STANDPOINT
OR A BUSINESS
STANDPOINT’
Ryan Coogler,
Black Panther director
LI YING—XINHUA/SIPA
