Former CEO of Disney Bob Egger (and his avatar) enters the metaverse.

Iger is investing and joining the board of directors of a company called Genies, which allows users to create their own digital avatars for use in virtual worlds (you can see Iger’s avatar above). Iger Joins Genies CEO and Co-Founder Akash NigamCo-founder of Genies Evan Rosenbaumowners of capital Sweet Mary And the Rick Young On the plateau of geniuses.

Genies have become popular with stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna and Lil Nas X. The company also has partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for avatars and NFTs.

“I have always been drawn to the intersection between technology and art, and Genies provide unique and fascinating opportunities to harness the power of this blend to enable new forms of creativity, expression and communication,” Iger said in a statement. “Having spent the past few months getting to know Akash and learning more about the Genies, I am very excited about his vision and how it will be achieved and I look forward to working with the entire team.”

Speaking of both the metaverse and web3 (a buzzword closely associated with crypto technology), Genies is trying to position itself as the future of online identity, whether that future is in virtual worlds or on the blockchain…or both. The hope is that after users create their avatar, it can be used everywhere and in every app (or virtual world).

And Iger, who officially left Disney at the end of the year, is exploring the equation just like his successor Pop Network He begins to explore similar areas. Chabek cited Metaverse in his memo outlining three strategic “pillars” for the company in January. In February, Disney appealed to the Executive mike plank to implement its metaverse strategy. But while Disney presumably sees the Metaverse as a story-telling opportunity, Iger is betting that we’ll all soon be experiencing Disney content in the Metaverse with our own comic versions.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.