As of April 9, 2026, Disney is planning to eliminate up to 1,000 positions in the coming weeks, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, marking the first significant round of job cuts under new Chief Executive Officer Josh D’Amaro, who officially succeeded Bob Iger on March 18, 2026.
What Is Happening at Disney Right Now
The Walt Disney Company is moving forward with layoffs that will affect as many as 1,000 employees across multiple divisions. The cuts are expected to roll out over the coming weeks, and Disney has declined to comment publicly on the report. While that number sounds alarming, it represents a fraction of a percent of Disney’s total workforce, which stood at approximately 231,000 employees at the end of fiscal year 2025. The majority of those employees work within Disney Experiences, the division that covers the theme parks and cruise lines.
Where the Cuts Are Expected to Land
A large portion of the planned layoffs is tied directly to the recent consolidation of Disney’s marketing operations. In January 2026, the company promoted Asad Ayaz to Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, combining previously separate marketing teams across Disney’s film, television, and streaming businesses into one unified department. That consolidation created significant overlap in roles, and many of the coming cuts appear to be a direct result of eliminating that duplication. Disney is also reportedly working to combine Disney+ and Hulu staff ahead of a planned merger of both platforms into a single app, which could account for additional positions being eliminated. ESPN is separately preparing to cut around 30 employees, primarily in off-camera departments.
This Is Not Disney’s First Round of Layoffs
These cuts follow a much larger wave that took place under Bob Iger during his return as CEO. Between 2023 and 2025, Iger oversaw more than 8,000 job eliminations spread across Disney’s entertainment, ESPN, and corporate operations. The current round is considerably smaller in scale but arrives with a different kind of weight, given who is now in charge and what that transition means for the company’s culture. Reports indicate that plans for these cuts were set in motion before D’Amaro officially took the reins in March, which is worth noting. The groundwork was laid by the previous administration. D’Amaro is the one inheriting it.
The D’Amaro Factor Makes This News Hit Differently
Josh D’Amaro built his reputation by being exactly the kind of leader who shows up. He walked the parks. He engaged with Cast Members in a way that felt genuine. His rise from Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products to the top job at the entire company felt like a reward for that real, on-the-ground connection with the people who make the magic happen every day. So when the first major news of his tenure is a round of layoffs, it lands differently than it might have under another executive. D’Amaro has made collaboration and becoming “one Disney” the centerpiece of his early messaging. These cuts are the first test of whether that vision extends to how the company treats the people caught in the middle of a structural reorganization.
Our Take
Here is the part that is genuinely hard to sit with. Disney reported $94.4 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2025, with total segment operating income climbing 12 percent year over year. The studios brought in around $6 billion. The parks business alone generated $36 billion. By almost any measure, this is a growing company. And yet, in an economic moment where everyday people are watching every dollar and job security feels more uncertain than it has in years, Disney is telling up to 1,000 of its own people that there is no longer a place for them. Wall Street may be holding steady. The people getting that call this month are not. We also keep coming back to a question that rarely gets asked in these situations: how many of these employees could have landed somewhere else inside a company with 231,000 people on payroll? Disney has the scale to think creatively about keeping talent rather than cutting it. The decision to eliminate positions rather than reassign people is a choice, and it is worth naming it as one.
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Disney Planning Up to 1,000 Layoffs Under New CEO Josh D’Amaro
