The first salvo in the upcoming Bob Iger book wars will be fired next month when Bob Chapek — Iger’s erstwhile successor at Disney — releases his tell-all memoir, “Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth.”
The book, being released by Simon & Schuster’s imprint Gallery Books, promises to finally tell Chapek’s side of the story regarding the falling out between the two Bobs, Chapek’s unceremonious dismissal after less than three years on the job and his subsequent banishment from Hollywood.
The book will ask if Chapek was made to be “the scapegoat” for Disney’s COVID-era troubles. Gallery Books
“Within weeks of starting at the top, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down parks, theaters, and cruise ships — forcing Chapek to steer the billion-dollar empire through unprecedented times,” reads the book’s official description. “The stakes were high, the decisions unforgiving, and the backlash often inordinate, leaving him to wonder whether he had become the scapegoat in it all. In 2022, Chapek was out; his former boss was back in.”
But Disney enthusiasts should clear ample space on their shelves for several Iger-related books that are in the works. As Page Six Hollywood reported earlier this year, Iger has renewed his focus on a follow-up to his 2019 New York Times bestseller, “The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company,” and hired former Hillary Clinton speechwriters and communications experts Nick Merrill and Dan Schwerin‘s Evergreen Strategy Group to help.
Part of the explanation for Iger’s renewed interest in releasing another memoir is to counter an unauthorized biography being written about him by Wall Street Journal reporter Robbie Whelan. Anticipation for Whelan’s book, which sources say will include some unflattering elements of Iger’s tenure, has been building inside The Walt Disney Company for months. According to several sources Iger is so concerned about what Whelan has uncovered and plans to report that he views the memoir he’s writing with Schwerin as a way to counter it.
Bob Iger had handpicked Chapek to be his successor as CEO before souring on him. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Chapek has mostly kept a low profile since being fired before Thanksgiving in 2022. Getty Images for Disney
According to a report in Puck, Iger even hired pit bull media attorney Charles Harder to gain some extra muscle. Stay tuned!
