As eagle-eyed (or eagle-eared) spectators of Walt Disney Animation Studios' Zootopia 2 flocked to the theaters this holiday weekend, they may have stumbled upon a familiar voice amidst the film's soundscape. Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, took on the role of "Bob Tiger" in a scene delivering the weather forecast. For those in the audience who perused the credits at the end of the film, they would have confirmed that "Bob Tiger" was indeed voiced by none other than Robert A. Iger, marking his debut acting role on IMDB.
Iger joins an illustrious voice cast that includes Shakira, Ke Huy Quan, Macaulay Culkin, Quinta Brunson, and Dancing with the Stars winner Robert Irwin. Although Iger has graced numerous documentary and unscripted projects as himself (he was recently seen on the ESPN Manningcast just a few weeks ago), he had never lent his voice to an animated character until now.
This is not the first time Iger has delivered a weather forecast for a Disney platform. In December 2021, just before his previous departure from the company (which turned out to be short-lived, as we now know), Iger shared the weather for KABC, the Disney-owned ABC station in Los Angeles. In fact, one of Iger's first jobs in media was as a weatherman for a local TV station in Ithaca, New York.
Zootopia 2, a sequel to the 2016 film, is poised to become a blockbuster this Thanksgiving weekend, raking in $39 million on its opening day. The film embodies Iger's strategy for Disney, which has leveraged the Zootopia IP into theme park rides and shows in Florida and China. And this time, Iger is planning to leave Disney for real, with the company informing Wall Street that it expects to name a new CEO next year, with Iger's contract ending at the end of 2026.
