Is Disney Trapping Its Legendary Actors With These False Promises?

Being a Disney celebrity or Disney Channel actor has never apparently been easy — but these days, it seems particularly tricky to be a Disney star. According to this recent report from a supposedly reliable source, the Walt Disney Company has allegedly been systematically restricting its A-list stars by tying them to contracts with no intention of following through on their promises.

This accusation specifically involves Disney’s mistreatment of Disney Legends, i.e. Disney celebrities who have become synonymous with the company. Many actresses who have voiced Disney princesses, such as the original Little Mermaid Jodi Benson, are Disney Legends.

Silencing Disney Legends?

According to the source in this report, who goes by “WDW Pro”, Disney has allegedly “been going to Disney Legends, people who worked with the company for a very long time, have extremely storied careers, names that you would know, and Disney is hiring these individuals or has been hiring these individuals over the last number of years.”

If this source is to be believed, Disney is actually dredging up all of its Disney Legends and promising them some new projects “for one purpose”: “to silence those who made the company what it is”.

Is There More to Iger’s Cutbacks?

“Let’s say that it’s a project that they have brought them on and those Legends believe they’re going to be a part of doing something big, something tremendous”, the “WDW Pro” source explained. “And then the company, we are told, has been sidelining those Legends [so] that they don’t actually end up working on the project at all even if they are credited.”

Since Disney CEO Bob Iger has been very open about drastically cutting back on planned films or TV shows in an effort to right the struggling Disney ship post-Chapek, the idea of “sidelining” Disney Legend projects on a large scale does not actually seem implausible.

Are the ‘Frozen’ Stars Next?

Having signed a contract for these future projects would naturally be a legal bind that would keep the Disney Legends from saying anything negative about Disney — and if Disney kept stringing along these actors with those contracts for the infinitely-postponed projects, then the celebrities would find themselves tied to Disney in perpetuity.

Many beloved celebrities are Disney Legends, and many of them are revered in the Disney fan community.

The entire lead Frozen cast recently became Disney Legends at the most recent D23 Expo, meaning that (if this report is accurate) Frozen stars like Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad might be vulnerable to manipulation from the Walt Disney Company in this way.

Do you think that there is any truth to the allegation that Disney is supposedly trapping its celebrity actors and actresses in indefinite contracts as part of a deliberate scheme to keep them quiet about any of the Walt Disney Company’s faults — especially now, when Disney is facing a significant amount of negative publicity?