George Lucas has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since selling Lucasfilm to Disney over ten years ago, but the Star Wars creator has noticed a disturbance in The Force, and is back to set things right.
Late last year, we learned that controversial former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter had joined forces with veteran Disney executive Jay Rasulo and pledged his considerable Disney shares to billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz. Peltz's firm, Trian Partners, has a $3 billion stake in Disney, and after taking their case to shareholders, the investor is looking for three out of the twelve seats on the board.
Disney has come right out and stated that Perlmutter has a "personal agenda" against Iger and that his interests "may be different than that of all other shareholders," but with Ike's shares alone making up 80% of Trian's stake, they could obviously cause some big problems.
Now, Iger has a powerful new ally in the ongoing proxy fight with the activist investors.
“Creating magic is not for amateurs. When I sold Lucasfilm just over a decade ago, I was delighted to become a Disney shareholder because of my long-time admiration for its iconic brand and Bob Iger’s leadership,” Lucas said in a statement (via THR). “When Bob recently returned to the company during a difficult time, I was relieved. No one knows Disney better. I remain a significant shareholder because I have full faith and confidence in the power of Disney and Bob’s track record of driving long-term value. I have voted all of my shares for Disney’s 12 directors and urge other shareholders to do the same.”
Lucas is the latest high-profile name to come out in support of Iger and Disney following similar statements from the family of Walt and Roy Disney, as well as shareholder services firm Glass Lewis, which released its recommendation to support the Disney board this week.
We don't know exactly how much Disney stock Lucas owns, but when the company acquired Lucasfilm for $4 billion, the deal reportedly included as much as $1.8 billion in stock.
Perlmutter made a lot of enemies during his time at Marvel, and reportedly attempted to stand in the way of the studio developing both Black Panther and Captain Marvel because he didn't think toys depicting Black and female superheroes would sell.
According to one source, when the decision was made to replace Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle in the 2010 Iron Man sequel, Perlmutter told a Disney executive that the move saved money and no one would notice because "Black people look the same."
Perlmutter is no fan of Kevin Feige, either, so if he does manage to regain some power at Disney, some major changes at Marvel Studios could well be on the horizon.