MarvelBlog News for February 8th, 2026

The Walt Disney Company just announced who will replace Bob Iger as CEO.

As a byproduct of this move, Kevin Feige has two new bosses.

We’ll discuss the potential ripple effects of these moves in MarvelBlog News.

What Just Happened?

On Tuesday morning, Disney’s Board of Directors unanimously voted on succession.

The Board chose the leader in the clubhouse, Josh D’Amaro, to become Disney’s next CEO.

D’Amaro and Dana Walden, currently the Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, had been the presumed favorites.

However, D’Amaro’s work with Disney Experiences, the theme parks division, elevated him.

Disney earns more of its profit from D’Amaro’s division, which ultimately won him the CEO title.

Thankfully, Disney isn’t ready to let Walden leave the company, though, which is what happened last time.

After Disney’s ill-fated decision to promote Bob Chapek to CEO, Kevin Mayer left.

Coincidentally or not, Mayer’s previous initiative, Disney+,  became a financial lodestone at Disney.

Chapek’s solution to go all-in on Disney+ involved his throwing money at the problem.

Mayer likely would have used more finesse and thereby averted disaster for Disney.

Alas, Chapek happily watched his chief competition leave the company.

And that’s how we got Secret Invasion. I’m not even joking. The mistakes cascaded to that point.

Disney hopes to avoid that nonsense six years later, and so the company made another move.

Dana Walden earned a major promotion as well. She is now the President of Disney.

More importantly, the Board created a new role for her as well: Chief Creative Officer.

While Disney has had Presidents before, more recently Iger in 2005, it’s never had a CCO.

So, Walden will oversee all Disney stories…including the MCU.

How We Got Here

To date, Alan Bergman, Walden’s Co-Chairman at Disney Entertainment, had handled those duties.

Bergman worked alongside the since retired Alan Horn, who joined Disney in 2012.

Technically, Rich Ross had led Disney during the early days of its Marvel ownership.

However, the company didn’t have confidence in Ross and searched for his successor.

Horn, an industry veteran, spearheaded the production of many of your favorite MCU titles.

Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Captain America: Civil War were all his films.

Horn was terrific and taught Bergman the ins and outs of running Marvel.

Alas, Chapek chased off Horn, and Bergman hasn’t had quite the same touch as Disney’s studio boss.

Now, Walden will take over, as Bergman reports to her, whereas they had been equals.

Historically, Kevin Feige had reported to Ross, then Horn and finally Bergman.

Now, Feige has a new pair of bosses, with Walden being officially in charge of all Disney Entertainment.

So, she’s the one who will have final say on the MCU from now on, but she works for D’Amaro.

Based on current intel, Walden will report to D’Amaro, which means Feige has a new system.

Presumably, Disney won’t shake up much at Marvel – hold that thought – but it’s different now.

Feige just got a new boss and a new boss’s boss, which should have ripple effects.

How Marvel May Change

In her new role, one of Walden’s unspoken duties involves fixing the MCU. Also, Star Wars.

You don’t care about the second one as much as the first one, though, and that’s a sore subject.

I’d most dismissed rumors of the MCU in decline as premature until 2025.

With Marvel releasing two excellent films that still struggled, I now have concerns.

Captain America: Brave New World was a substandard MCU title, but Thunderbolts* was excellent.

Similarly, The Fantastic Four: First Steps should have been a real crowd-pleaser.

Crowds weren’t really a thing at the theaters for that film, though, which has placed Marvel on red alert.

So, Walden WILL need to change some stuff, especially if Avengers: Doomsday disappoints.

In fact, we should allow for the possibility that Kevin Feige’s job isn’t 100 percent safe.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, as I have confidence in Avengers: Doomsday.

Should that film disappoint at the box office, Walden may decide to make a change, though.

Victoria Alonso seemed perfectly safe right up until Disney fired her, too. So, we never really know.

Recent reports suggest that Feige appreciates the significance of Avengers: Doomsday.

Rather than working on other projects simultaneously, Feige has focused exclusively on The Avengers.

That fact alone should give us all hope about the quality of the next two films…or maybe it’s three.

Some recent reports have indicated that Marvel may split Secret Wars into two films.

Ultimately, that decision is now Dana Walden’s to make, which means she’s already making an impact on the MCU.

As for Feige, his job is perfectly safe as long as Avengers: Doomsday does well. If not, well, Kathleen Kennedy just retired…

Marvel Miscellany

So, nobody will know for sure until tonight, but Marvel appears to have surprised me.

As I mentioned during the four weeks of Avengers: Doomsday trailers, they appeared to be building to Doom.

While the character technically appeared and even voiced a touch of dialogue, his face was never shown.

The logical conclusion involved the big reveal occurring as part of the Super Bowl tonight.

However, recent reports suggest that Marvel isn’t airing a trailer during the Super Bowl.

I’ll add that studios sometimes sidestep these rumors by showing commercials just before the game begins.

Those technically slot into the pre-show and therefore aren’t scrutinized as much.

Still, while I very much hope the reports have it wrong, Marvel appears to be sitting out the Big Game.

In that scenario, I have no idea when we will get our first look at Robert Downey Jr. as Doom.

I’ll promise that I’ll update this article on Monday if Disney doesn’t post an Avengers: Doomsday clip, though.

Finally, just because it amused me, here is Mark Ruffalo laughing off reports of his MCU firing.

I think we can safely say that one is hogwash. Otherwise, the internet knew Ruffalo was fired before he did.

 

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