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Iger's tenure at Disney has been lengthened on multiple occasions, and his most recent contract extension takes him through December 2021. This means he'll be able to make sure the Fox assets Disney is buying for $52.4 billion integrate into the company, and set out a path for Disney's streaming future as it battles Netflix.
But eventually Iger will have to retire, and the succession plan at Disney is far from clear.
In 2016, Disney COO Thomas Staggs, who was widely considered to be Iger's heir apparent, left the company unexpectedly when it became clear that he wasn't going to get the top job. Since then no obvious successor has been anointed by Iger, at least publicly.
Some industry insiders and analysts have speculated that either Disney will look outside the company for a new CEO when Iger retires, or look to the personnel coming over from Fox.
"It buys [the board] time," Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser said of Iger's contract extension in December. "I don't think they were satisfied that they had a successor inside of Disney, so there's time either to find outside talent or to assess if James Murdoch or someone from the Fox organization is an appropriate successor."
But when Disney announced a strategic reorganization last week, talk of potential internal candidates started again. The chatter has focused around three men: Kevin Mayer, Bob Chapek, and James Pitaro (though he's considered much more of an outside shot).
All three have taken on big new responsibilities recently, with Mayer leading Disney's bet on a Netflix-like future, Chapek adding consumer products to his workload, and Pitaro moving to become the new head of ESPN.
Here's a breakdown of what these three have done so far in their Disney careers, and why they might have a chance to take over for Iger as chief executive: