Bob Chapek hasn’t set foot in Disney World since Disney fired him in November 2022. And he doesn’t sound like he’s planning a trip anytime soon.
In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, the former Disney CEO said he feels “let down and disillusioned.” Asked how it feels not to go back, he said it makes him “very sad.”
“Never say never,” he added. But he pointed to what he called “the effort to erase my time as CEO,” and said it doesn’t exactly make him want to go ride “it’s a small world.”
On the same day, his old boss gave his own version of how Chapek got the job in the first place.
What did Bob Chapek say in the Wall Street Journal interview?
The interview came out Sept. 24, five days before his memoir, Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth, arrives on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
A few things stood out:
The earnings call. A lot of Disney watchers point to his November 2022 earnings call as the moment the board turned on him. Disney+ lost about $1.5 billion that quarter. Chapek calls the idea that the call got him fired “an absurdity.”
Black Widow. Disney’s 2021 response to Scarlett Johansson‘s lawsuit, the one that accused her of “callous disregard” for the pandemic, wasn’t his work, he says. Per Laughing Place, Chapek says the statement was written by Disney’s head of corporate communications and approved by Iger. He called it “nontraditional.”
Florida. He now says his 2022 public apology over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which critics called “Don’t Say Gay,” was a mistake. He says he was “pushed into doing” it by “powers bigger than me.” He didn’t say who.
What did Bob Iger say about Chapek?
Bob Iger sat down with Harvard Business Review and former Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria for an interview that also came out Sept. 24.
Iger said Disney “perhaps weren’t as thorough as they should have been” when it picked his successor. He said the company knew Chapek’s weaknesses, but “discounted them a bit more” than it should have.
His bigger point was about what a CEO needs now. Iger said companies live in “a state of almost perpetual crisis,” and that leaders “can’t retreat to a bunker.”
It is worth pointing out that Iger mismanaged Star Wars and Marvel. The company has seen massive layoffs and price hikes after he returned in 2022.
Why does Chapek’s book defend The Return of Jafar?
Because he came up through Disney’s home video business, and The Return of Jafar was one of its biggest wins. The memoir goes back to those days, and Jafar is one of the films he stands up for, per Variety‘s rundown of the book.
This part is going to get some laughs online. The 1994 Aladdin sequel went straight to VHS, and critics were not kind to it.
The money was a different story. The Return of Jafar cost about $5 million to make and grossed about $300 million, selling around 15 million tapes.
That’s roughly 60 times its budget.
It was also the first direct-to-video animated feature Disney ever made. Chapek had joined Disney’s home video division, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, the year before, in 1993. He ran that division by 2006.
The Jafar formula turned into an entire shelf of Disney sequels on tape and DVD, from The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride to Cinderella II. Fans still argue about whether that was a good thing.
Why was Bob Chapek fired as Disney CEO?
Disney’s board replaced Chapek with Iger on Nov. 20, 2022, after less than three years in the job.
Chapek had taken over on Feb. 25, 2020, just weeks before COVID closed the parks. Variety’s coverage of the book says he blames Iger for what he calls a “relentless” three-year campaign against him.
When does Bob Chapek’s memoir come out?
Behind the Castle Walls comes out Sept. 29 from Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books. Chapek wrote it with Don Yaeger, and it runs 272 pages.
Earlier this week, the first excerpts had him defending the park price hikes he was criticized for as CEO. The WSJ interview is the next chapter of the same press tour.
Never say never, he says. For now, the boats on “it’s a small world” are sailing without him.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 24, 2026), the original Chapek interview
WDW News Today (Sept. 24, 2026), the “let down and disillusioned” and “an absurdity” quotes, and Iger’s HBR quotes
Disney Tourist Blog (Sept. 24, 2026), the “very sad,” “never say never” and “discounted them” quotes
Laughing Place (Sept. 24, 2026), Chapek on the Black Widow statement and the Florida apology
Harvard Business Review (Sept. 24, 2026), the Iger interview with Nitin Nohria
Variety (Sept. 2026), the book’s takeaways, including The Return of Jafar and the “relentless” campaign claim
Wikipedia (accessed Sept. 25, 2026), The Return of Jafar’s budget, sales and release date, and Chapek’s career dates, as a starting point only
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