Disney plans another round of layoffs in 2026 that could be its biggest yet. Executives said they remain focused on reducing costs to invest for growth. This marks the fourth round of job cuts this year under CEO Josh D’Amaro, as the company looks to save money across many departments.
CEO Josh D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston had warned employees about the string of layoffs this year in advance while announcing the June 2026 quarter results.
“We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers, including reductions in labor and SG&A [selling, general and administrative expenses],” the top executives wrote in the August 5 letter to Disney shareholders, as quoted by Variety.
4th Disney layoffs in 2026 could be the biggest round
This would mark the fourth round of layoffs in 2026 under Walt Disney Company CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took charge in March and succeeded longtime chief executive Robert A. ‘Bob’ Iger. The Bloomberg report, published shortly after Tuesday midnight UTC, indicated that these cuts could impact thousands of roles, potentially shaping up to be the biggest round of job losses at the company this year.
It remains to be seen which teams or areas would be directly hit by the cuts, as CEO D’Amaro “aims to reinvest a portion of the savings into film and TV programming, technology and the theme parks and cruise ship businesses,” as quoted by the Bloomberg report.
At the end of FY25, Disney employed about 231,000 people.
Previous job cuts at Disney this year
The most recent layoffs occurred at the media company in September, according to a Variety report citing a source familiar with the development. A few hundred roles were reportedly slashed across multiple departments, primarily in Disney’s human resources and IT departments. Corporate and different divisions were also affected.
Speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime event last month, Disney’s President and Chief Creative Officer Dana Walden addressed September’s restructuring.
“I think, like all of our similarly situated competitors, and certainly all of our competitors in the tech industry, there is a need to constantly evaluate how you’re structured,” Walden said.
Disney laid off about 1,000 people in April after the new CEO formed a consolidated enterprise marketing division under the leadership of Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Asad Ayaz.
July witnessed further cuts, as the company continued to slash several hundred jobs across its multi-banner functions, including Pixar, Disney Entertainment Television and Disney’s studios, and ESPN. On the studios side, the iconic animation studio Pixar was hit the hardest, while the majority of cuts in the TV group happened at National Geographic.
As ongoing cost-cutting measures continued, early-retirement buyout packages were offered to longtime US-based executives within the Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and corporate divisions the following month. Availability was restricted to director through EVP exec levels, and employees with a minimum age of 50 and at least 10 years of service.
Walden also spoke about the voluntary buyouts at the recent Bloomberg event, calling the move “extremely generous,” and saying it “gave a number of our long-tenured executives agency and the opportunity to make their own decisions around whether the timing was right to leave or to stay, knowing that this evolution will never stop, technology set their sights on our business, and we must survive and thrive and grow, and that’s what we’re going to do.”