When Bob Iger announced he was stepping down as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, he added that he would be staying with the company in a more creative role. According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources close to Iger suggest that one of his main areas of focus will be to streamline the content available on Disney+.
What’s Happening:
- Disney+ launched late last year to huge success and acclaim, with subscribers clamoring for more of The Mandalorian and unlimited access to the vast libraries of films from the various arms of the Walt Disney Studios.
- However, the bulk of the original series that were set to debut in the service’s first year have all been pushed towards the first six months of the launch of Disney+, leaving not many high-profile options until The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts later this year in August.
- The service has also cancelled projects that were in the works or decided to move them to Hulu, because their content might be more suited for the sister streamer as opposed to the family-friendly offerings of Disney+.
- Among the cancelled projects are:
- A new unannounced series based on Tron
- Muppets Live Another Day
- Book of Enchantment
- The shows that have made the transition to Hulu are the upcoming Love, Simon series now titled Love, Victor and High Fidelity which premiered in February.
- A sequel series that was planned based on Lizzie McGuire was halted after the showrunner, Terri Minsky, left the project citing creative differences. Star of that show, Hilary Duff, has been using social media to plead that the show with it’s more adult themes like sex and cheating should also be moved to Hulu.
- A source inside Disney+ told The Hollywood Reporter that the creators were set up for failure since the Disney+ executive team said they want “to be on the edgy side of PG-13” but inevitably the content skewed more PG in the long run.
- Those involved with the cancelled or moved-to-Hulu projects say that they each suffered from a lack of direction and benchmarks for what was expected from the streaming service, though the creative team from Muppets Live Another Day; Josh Gad, Eddy Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz, are currently developing a prequel series to the live-action Beauty and the Beast for the service.
- Walt Disney Studios president of production Sean Bailey is also sending 3 to 5 original movies to the service each year, Lady and the Tramp, Noelle, and Togo being prime examples of this effort, but not what some would say is worth subscribing to the service for.
- The goal in the long term is by year 5 to reach 50 original series and 10 features and specials each year, with 35 originals being presented by the end of year one.
- The upcoming slump in high-profile original programming on Disney+ will be padded out by releases on Hulu, as well as the debut of Stargirl on March 13th, as well as non-scripted programming like Be Our Chef all building to the premiere of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in August, and WandaVision later in the year.
- Bob Iger is staying with the Walt Disney Company until 2021 in a more creative role, and has this time to get the original content streamlined for the service, hopefully before Peacock and other upcoming streaming services debut with their original programming.
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