Disney’s Parks Chief Sees Fortnite as Key to Its Future

If you don’t stop for candy or merch, the walk along Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A., from the entrance gates up to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, should take about five minutes. Late in the afternoon on March 4, Josh D’Amaro, the chair of Walt Disney Co.’s parks division, needs at least 10. It’s not that the guy isn’t spry—he just has some selfies to take. D’Amaro doesn’t get stopped for photos nearly as often as Mickey or Minnie, but to a certain breed of Disney adult, he’s a recognizable character himself. On this particular Tuesday, the conversations that passersby strike up range from their favorite rides to the absolute best spots for family portraits. “These fans are so passionate,” D’Amaro remarks a few minutes later, once out of earshot from the people who’ve shared their stories. “I love it.”

Long before he was running the company’s parks, cruises and consumer-product teams—totaling roughly 180,000 people, or about 4 in 5 Disney workers—D’Amaro was a fan, too. He vividly recalls his first visit to the park as a boy, when Peter Pan’s Flight, which suspends visitors over the island of Neverland, made him feel like he was flying. When his kids were little, he tried to give them a taste of that feeling on the ride Soarin’. More recently he’s tried to sprinkle a similar bit of pixie dust throughout his stretch of the Disney empire, a remit that’s expanded rapidly over the past several years.