Disney is preparing its next phase of cost cutting, with plans that could include up to 1,000 layoffs, according to reports that emerged this week. The move comes shortly after Josh D’Amaro took over as chief executive in mid-March and signals that the company’s long restructuring effort is not over, even after several years of reorganization, expense reductions and leadership transition.
The expected cuts are important less for their size alone than for what they say about Disney’s current priorities. The company is not reacting to a sudden emergency. It is continuing a broader effort to streamline operations, reduce overlap and push more coordination across divisions after years of strategic strain in media, streaming and corporate structure. In that sense, the layoffs appear to be part of a more deliberate push for efficiency under the new leadership rather than a one-off shock decision.
The fact that the marketing department is expected to bear much of the impact makes that logic even clearer. Disney has already centralized marketing across entertainment, sports and experiences, and the new cuts suggest the company is now trying to turn that structural change into tangible savings.
Marketing appears to be the main target
According to the reported plan, many of the layoffs are expected to come from Disney’s marketing organization. That department was recently consolidated under Asad Ayaz, who was named chief marketing and brand officer in January. In that role, Ayaz oversees marketing across all of Disney’s major segments, making it the first time the company has put its different units under a single marketing leader.
This kind of reorganization usually creates pressure for role reduction because combining functions often exposes duplication that was previously spread across separate business lines. If multiple divisions once maintained their own teams, consolidation makes it easier to argue that fewer people can now do the same work from a centralized structure.
That appears to be the thinking behind the latest move. The layoffs are not described as a sign that marketing matters less, but rather as an attempt to reshape how it is managed and how much it costs.
D’Amaro is inheriting a company still in transition
Although the cuts come under Josh D’Amaro’s leadership, the restructuring groundwork was laid before he became chief executive. Bob Iger returned to Disney in late 2022 to stabilize the company after a difficult period marked by weak stock performance, missed earnings expectations and strategic uncertainty. By early 2023, Disney had already announced a sweeping reorganization, a plan to cut 5.5 billion dollars in costs and the elimination of 7,000 jobs.
D’Amaro’s arrival was widely seen as the start of Disney’s next chapter, not the end of its reset. He took charge after a long succession process and inherited a company that had made progress in key areas but was still trying to prove that its turnaround could produce stronger and more sustainable investor confidence.
The latest planned layoffs therefore fit into a broader pattern. They suggest that D’Amaro is continuing, and perhaps sharpening, the efficiency drive that began under Iger rather than immediately shifting into a pure growth posture.
Disney says it is stronger, but still tightening
What makes the timing notable is that D’Amaro has publicly described Disney as operating from a position of strength. On his first official day as chief executive, he praised the progress made under Iger, pointing to improved studio performance, a more robust streaming business, changes at ESPN and continued momentum in parks and experiences.
That message was intended to show continuity and confidence. But the prospect of up to 1,000 additional layoffs reveals that Disney still believes more cost discipline is needed, even after claiming to have moved beyond one of the most difficult periods in its recent history.
This is not necessarily a contradiction. Large companies often tighten internal structures even while presenting a stronger strategic outlook. Still, it does show that Disney’s leadership believes operational streamlining remains essential to supporting the next stage of growth.
The cuts are small in scale, but meaningful in signal
Even if Disney proceeds with the full 1,000 layoffs, the number would represent less than 1% of its workforce, which stood at roughly 231,000 employees at the end of fiscal 2025. That means the move is not transformational in purely numerical terms. It is too small to redefine the company on its own.
Its significance lies elsewhere. The cuts would be one of the first notable management actions under D’Amaro and a sign that Disney intends to keep pressing for speed, coordination and lower costs across the business. Investors may therefore read the move less as a financial event in isolation and more as an indicator of the new chief executive’s operating style.
In that sense, the layoffs carry symbolic weight. They suggest Disney’s long restructuring cycle still has another chapter to run, and that D’Amaro’s version of leadership may begin not with dramatic reinvention, but with another round of tightening inside a company still trying to balance scale, creativity and profitability.