With the Nelson Peltz proxy fight in the rearview mirror, Disney CEO Bob Iger says that he is now free to focus on moving the company forward, with succession being a top priority.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC Thursday morning, Iger said that in meeting with shareholders over the last few months, succession was a key issue, and he sought to reassure the Street that he was focused on the problem.

The board engaged in a succession process the moment I came back, and theyre taking it very, very seriously. I dont think it has changed because of the activism battle at all, Iger told CNBCs David Faber. They established this as their number one priority from the moment I came back, they formed a committee right away, theyve been meeting regularly, theyre going to meet even more regularly going forward because Im not going to be here forever. He also suggested that while his contract runs through 2026, his successor will be announced at the right time, hinting that a name could emerge sooner.

I think its really important to have a good transition process, you know, this is a big complicated company, Iger added. And not only is it important to choose the right person, but its really important to give that person all the opportunity in the world to be successful in the job, and the boards very focused on who the person is and when the decision should be made, and essentially, how the handover of sorts will take place.

He also addressed the proxy fight, with Faber pressing him on whether Peltzs crusade was a personal one given the backing of former Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter.

If youre asking whether its personal on their side, you probably should ask him, he probably would say no. I think there probably was, to some extent, a degree of personal animus that was on the table here, Iger replied.

And when asked whether it was true that he was prepared to step down from Disneys board should Peltz win a seat, Iger said that his presence on the board, we believed, could be distracting and that might have made it very, very difficult for us to do our jobs the way we feel they need to be done.

Iger also brushed aside questions about Elon Musks trolling of the company, telling Faber that theres no relevance to the Walt Disney Company or to me.

People have been coming after me and the company for years, he added. I dont get distracted by those things.

But Iger did seem to acknowledge that critiques of Disneys content as being woke may have a certain degree of merit, though he added the term woke is thrown around rather liberally, no pun intended in that regard. I think a lot of people dont even understand really what it means.

I think the noise is sort of quieted down. Ive been preaching this for a long time at the company before I left and since I came back then our number one goal is to entertain, Iger added. The bottom line is that infusing messaging as a sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what were up to. They need to be entertaining, and where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world whether its you know, fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great.

But generally speaking, we need to be an entertainment first company And understanding that look, were trying to reach a very, very diverse audience. And on one hand in order to do that, what you do, the stories you tell, have to really reflect the audience that youre trying to reach, but that audience because they are so diverse, really, first and foremost, they want to be entertained, and sometimes they cant be turned off by certain things. And we just have to be more sensitive to the interest of a broad audience. Its not easy, you know, so that he cant please everybody all the time, right?