Disney shows off streaming plans
Lineup includes all 30 seasons of “Simpsons.”
BURBANK, Calif. – New series featuring Marvel’s Loki and a Falcon-Winter Soldier pairing; two more with characters dwelling in the “Star Wars” universe; and another based on the “High School Musical” films are among the highlights of Disney’s coming streaming service, Disney+.
The much-anticipated ad-free service launches Nov. 12 and will cost subscribers $6.99 a month, with an annual option available for $69.99. (Netflix’s most popular plan is $12.99 a month.) Some new series and films will be available at launch, and others are scheduled for later premieres.
The giant entertainment company flexed its programming muscle in unveiling plans for Disney+ Thursday at an investor presentation on its studio lot.
Highlights include “Loki,” an eightepisode series starring Tom Hiddleston that premieres in the second year of the service, and “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” (Year 1 of Disney+), with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan playing their characters from the Marvel films.
The “Star Wars” series are “The Mandalorian,” which follows a bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) and will be available at launch, and an untitled spy series featuring Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” It arrives in the second year.
Original films that will premiere exclusively on the service in its first year include “Lady & the Tramp,” featuring the voices of Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux; “Noelle,” a Christmasthemed film starring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader; a “Phineas and Ferb” film; and “Stargirl,” a high school story that features “America’s Got Talent” winner Grace VanderWaal.
In addition to Pixar’s animation library, Disney+ will launch two projects tied to Pixars’ “Toy Story,” whose fourth film premieres in theaters this summer: “Forky Asks a Question,” a series of animated short stories featuring a new “Toy Story 4” character, and “Lamp Life,” a short film in which Bo Peep, who wasn’t in “Toy Story 3,” explains what she was doing at that time.
The service launches with eight “Star Wars” theatrical films, with three more arriving during the first year, and will be the exclusive subscription video-ondemand home of all 30 seasons of “The Simpsons,” a crown jewel of the 20th Century Fox studio, which Disney acquired last month.
“Captain Marvel,” the Brie Larson Marvel superhero film that premiered in theaters in March, will be available to subscribers on launch day. Other 2019 films coming to the streaming service include “Avengers: Endgame,” “Aladdin,” “Toy Story 4,” “The Lion King” and “Frozen 2.”
Disney said the service will offer more than 7,500 episodes of television and 500 film titles by the end of the first year. Available films include classics, such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,“and “Mary Poppins,” to more recent favorites “Iron Man” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” The service also pulls from the Fox library, with such titles as “The Sound of Music” and “The Princess Bride.”
By Year 5, Disney hopes to offer more than 50 episodic series and 10 new movies and specials per year. The company expects 60 to 90 million subscribers by fiscal 2024, with one-third of subscribers coming from the U.S.
After a clip featuring mountains of movie and TV clips opened the presentation, Disney CEO Robert Iger told analysts and reporters that “the video you just watched told a powerful tale about where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished. It should also give you a strong sense of what we can do and what we’re building from,” he said. “For decades, these companies have been entertaining the world at the highest levels, creating an indelible connection with billions of people and a treasure trove of long-lasting content” that “no other content or technology company can rival.”
The new service will feature new and existing programming from Disney’s film and animation studios, “Star Wars,” Marvel, Pixar and National Geographic, which it acquired along with the FX network as part of the Fox deal.
Here’s a rundown of other new and existing programming:
Marvel
Besides “Loki” and “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” Disney+ announced another series based on Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, “WandaVision” (Year 2), which brings together Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany).
‘Star Wars’
Twelve new episodes of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” will premiere exclusively on Disney+.
Pixar
Building off of the “Monsters, Inc.” films, Pixar is making a new series, “Monsters at Work,” set to premiere in the first year of the new service and feature the voices of returning stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman.