Inside Disney’s Search to Replace Zenia Mucha: Does a New Era Demand a New Kind of Communications Chief?

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“The Disney we know now is not the Disney of 10 or 15 years ago,” says one Hollywood media expert

zenia mucha
Zenia Mucha (center), (clockwise from top left) Chris Ender, Jen Psaki Alannah Hall-Smith and Paul Roeder (Photos by Getty Images; Walt Disney Co.)

Scarlett Johansson has thrown Disney into a full-on PR crisis by suing the entertainment giant over the release of “Black Widow,” and by a luck of timing, the entertainment giant is short one communications leader.

Chief Communications Officer Zenia Mucha, tough enough to have earned such nicknames as “The Warrior Princess” and “Director of Revenge,” has announced she’ll depart in early 2022 after 20 years in the powerful role overseeing a team of 500 people. That makes the longtime and well-compensated executive a lame duck at a time when Disney badly needs expert media guidance.

Mucha was Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger’s longtime right-hand aide in managing difficult PR situations.

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