Didn't Iger take back his CEO duties back in May or something? And isn't he the one who has the big hatred for Song of the South that's a major component in the retheme?
And if Iger isn't the CEO anymore, why is he still there?
Iger is Executive Chair of the Board of Directors. He is due to leave in December of 2021.
Chapek is CEO.
Iger stayed on the board to help with the transition to a new CEO... whom he hand-picked... and is in sync with leveraging IP... and has been tacitly approving what Iger and D'Amaro and their Press Releases have been saying about Splash's retheme.
Not to mention that the entire Board of Directors could have intervened at some point and shut that all down... but it seems they're also tacitly in agreement.
The talk of "Iger taking over" was at the start of the pandemic when really big decisions, like shutting down the parks and who, if any, to lay-off had to be made. With a brand new CEO, investors could get skittish. As much as some theme park enthusiasts dislike Iger, investors love him. And so, the investors needed to be mollified to avoid a run on Disney stock. Since then, Chapek has taken over quarterly meetings without Iger and has clearly been the one in charge.
Iger's role is to focus on creative endeavors (read that to mean he's working with all their studio content creators to make Disney+ attractive and profitable).
Be careful about thinking that something you don't want to happen actually won't because of wild assumptions and theories and speculation and rumors that it won't happen.
This is the "Disney surely wouldn't..." argument which has no basis in reality unless there is actual evidence they're not going to do it. So far, there is absolutely zero evidence that Splash isn't going to get the retheme. The retheme has been mentioned in the middle of a pandemic, so, that means any financial difficulties caused by the pandemic isn't stopping it.
blogmickey.com
