The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is preparing to eliminate as many as 1,000 positions over the coming weeks, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and Variety.
The move represents the first significant workforce reduction under the leadership of Josh D’Amaro, who officially took over as Chief Executive Officer on March 18, 2026.
The layoffs are expected to fall most heavily on the company's marketing operations.
In January, Disney consolidated its historically fragmented marketing functions across film, television, and streaming under a single global lead.
Asad Ayaz, a veteran executive, was appointed to the newly created role of Chief Marketing and Brand Officer to oversee this unification.
Internally referred to as "Project Imagine," the restructuring aims to eliminate redundancies and coordinate brand messaging more efficiently across the company's vast media ecosystem.
While Disney ended fiscal year 2025 with a global headcount of approximately 231,000, these latest cuts are targeted specifically at the entertainment, ESPN, and corporate segments.
The Experiences division—which includes theme parks and cruise lines and accounts for roughly 80% of Disney's total workforce—is not expected to see significant impacts.
The current staff reductions follow a period of aggressive cost-cutting under D’Amaro’s predecessor, Bob Iger.
Between 2023 and 2025, Iger oversaw the elimination of approximately 8,000 roles, generating $7.5 billion in annualized savings.
Sources familiar with the matter indicate that while D’Amaro is overseeing the current implementation, the plans for these layoffs were initiated prior to his formal elevation to CEO, with guidance from consultants at Bain & Co.
The workforce shift comes as Disney continues to integrate the operations of Disney+ and Hulu.
The company has been working to fold both services into a single, unified streaming platform to simplify the user experience and reduce backend technical costs.