Bob Iger Takes the Gloves Off for Disney’s Streaming Debut

Long before he became chief executive officer of Walt Disney Co. in 2005, Robert Iger developed a habit of waking up on weekdays at 4:15 a.m. and working out. Lately he’s been getting up around that hour on weekends, too, to exercise and watch early versions of his studios’ movies and television shows. He’s been obsessing over the first season of The Mandalorian, a space western from the Star Wars universe created by actor-director Jon Favreau. The show is about a bounty hunter whose armor bears a distinct resemblance to that of Boba Fett, who tracked down Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.

“I’ve probably seen each episode of The Mandalorian three times,” Iger says. “First, to give some notes. Second, to see the rough cut and the impact of the notes. And now, just recently, I watched all the final cuts so that I could be blown away by how it looks.” Disney is spending more than $100 million on the show, so it had better be visually stunning and then some.