Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek Memoir ‘Behind The Castle Walls’ Gets Fall Pub Date  

Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, has set a September 29 publication date for Behind The Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth by Bob Chapek, the former short-tenured CEO of Disney.

The memoir chronicles Chapek’s 30-year Disney tenure at the company and “the high-stakes maneuverings that unraveled behind the scenes” from his 2020 appointment as chief executive to his subsequent dismissal in 2022, the publisher revealed Wednesday. It will be the first time he’s publicly discussed the corporate drama.

Chapek recounts his early years, raised in small-town Indiana by his mother and WWII veteran father. After graduating college at Indiana University, he earned an MBA from Michigan State before landing jobs at J. Walter Thompson and the H.J. Heinz Company.

He began is career at Disney in 1993 as marketing director for Home Entertainment, going on to key roles including president of Consumer Products, and chairman of Parks, Experiences and Products. In February 2020, he was named CEO when Bob Iger abruptly stepped down just as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, shuttering theme parks, theaters and cruise ships.

“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,” the publisher’s blurb says.

“Four years later, after reflection and distance, Chapek is going behind the scenes of one of the world’s most recognizable–and reticent–companies on earth. BEHIND THE CASTLE WALLS is a revealing and thrilling story of ambition, power, and the price of Disney magic.”

Chapek was little known outside of Disney and it was a surprise when Iger handpicked the exec to take the reins. He was pilloried on several fronts including management decisions that alienated key executives and a public fight with star Scarlett Johansson around the release of Black Widow. His response to legislation (dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill) in Florida angered both company employees and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

His rubber stamp by the Disney board was used as ammunition by activist investor Nelson Peltz in a proxy fight against the Mouse House.

However, it’s no secret that Chapek’s tenure was complicated by an unusual arrangement that saw Iger stay on as executive chairman, retaining control over creative endeavors at the company and leaving Chapek feeling undermined from the start. Now he tells his side.