Last year, Pixar head John Lasseter was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. The animation legend immediately went on a sabbatical, and several months following that, it was announced that he would be stepping away from both Disney Animation and Pixar altogether, which was a move pretty much everyone expected.

We now know that Pete Docter will be taking the reins at Pixar and Jennifer Lee will be doing the same at Walt Disney Animation. Given that Lasseter was very much responsible for the success of Pixar and the recent resurgence in the quality of Disney movies, you can understand fans’ fears that both companies will fall into disarray.

Well, there’s at least some truth to all this. While the companies may not fall into disarray, they will almost inevitably undergo a huge cultural shift, as Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged to THR.

“Any time that you change leadership there is an inevitable cultural shift. There was a cultural shift at Disney when I took over for Michel Eisner after 21 years. John Lasseter was in his role for a long time, had an enormous influence on both the culture and the creativity of Pixar, and so of course in John leaving there is inevitable and was an inevitable cultural shift. To get into the details, I’d prefer not to.”

RELATED – Incredibles 2 Is Pixar’s Highest Grossing Film Of All Time

But given the accusations against John Lasseter, not every aspect of the cultural shift will be a bad thing. Hopefully, it will be a much more comfortable atmosphere for women than it had been in the past while retaining the story-first aspects Lasseter treasured so much.

And it’s not like Pete Docter and Jennifer Lee are total novices to this stuff. Let’s just hope they’re able to make it count across the board as Lasseter did.

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

SOURCE: THR