On Saturday morning, September 10, Walt Disney Company announced on LinkedIn that it was hiring a transactional lawyer to aid the company’s rapidly growing interest in web3. The attorney will join Walt Disney Company’s legal department and assist the company as it explores emerging technologies such as NFTs and metaverses.
The job post on LinkedIn lists a number of responsibilities in relation to web3, including performing due diligence for NFTs, blockchain, and third-party marketplaces, as well as providing full product life cycle legal advice and support for global NFT products.
Of particular interest is the bottom-most responsibility on the job post that reads: “Partner with business teams as they plan new global emerging technology projects, typically on an accelerated and aggressive timeline.” It seems as if Disney has no time to waste, and is looking to enter the emerging technology field as soon as possible, all with the support of a dedicated legal team.
In recent years, Disney has already shown initiative towards adopting web3 on a greater scale, actively exploring metaverses, NFTs, and blockchain. In July 2020, Disney submitted a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “virtual world simulator in the real world.” In December last year, the Trademark Office approved the patent, allowing Disney to merge the Metaverse with real world theme park experiences.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that the company is hoping to leverage both physical and digital data to steer its metaverse policy. He also went on to say that Disney is exploring and developing plans for the Metaverse during the D23 fan conference.
To that end, the company’s launched the Disney Accelerator Program which should aid the development of web3-related technologies. In 2022, Disney approved a total of six companies to join the Accelerator Program. The only blockchain network that made the cut is Polygon, earlier in July this year.
The very inclusion of a transaction lawyer, who normally reviews merger and acquisition deals, suggests complex business projects are ahead of Disney. After all, anything that involves any aspect of web3 is bound to have more than its fair share of complexities.
For Disney, it appears that web3 holds great potential for “next generation storytelling.” The company even enlisted the services of long-time Apple executive, Michael White, as vice president of a “Next Generation Storytelling Creative Experiences.”
Given Disney’s “accelerated and aggressive timeline,” what these next-gen storytelling experiences entail will become obvious sooner rather than later.
