Disney plus: Life is but a stream

MANILA, Philippines — Because this galaxy deserves more than one (or two) world-blasting streaming services, Disney is set to launch Disney+, its own online entertainment hub, on Nov. 12 this year. Not only will it feature a treasure trove of Disney classics, it’s set to unleash a “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”-level flood of brand-new series and movie titles coming all at once (you’d need a host of Mickeys with an army of walking buckets and mops to gather it all up).

For an initial $6.99/month or $69.99/year in the US, subscribers will be able to access content on a wide range of mobile and connected devices, including gaming consoles, streaming media players, and smart TVs. 

Except… not here in Asia. Not yet, anyway. Try as we might, we could not pry info about when exactly Disney+ will drop in the Philippines; not even a ballpark estimate. But stay tuned.

Disney+ joins many other online entertainment services out there, but it has one distinct advantage: it’s built on the shoulders of Disney’s multiple film and TV studios, so the potential for new content is practically limitless. With Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and newly acquired 20th Century Fox under its belt, Disney can go places Hollywood can’t really venture.

Star Wars TV series? There are several on the way, including not only the highly anticipated, Jon Favreau-directed series The Mandalorian, starring Pedro Pascal in a galaxy far, far away (somewhere in SW lore between the fall of the Empire and emergence of the First Order), but an as-yet-unnamed Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series bringing back Ewan McGregor (whose return to the D23 stage was a crowd pleaser) in the role, plus an untitled series starring Diego Luna reprising his role as Cassian Andor (charting his formative rebel days before Rogue One). 

What about Marvel, now that the Avengers have hung up their spandex? The Disney-owned franchise has plenty under development for Phase Four: not only are there MCU movies slated for 2020 and ’21, including origin story Black Widow (May ’20), The Eternals (November ’20), Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings (Feb. 2021), Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (May ’21) and Thor: Love and Thunder (Nov. ’21), there are a slate of original live action and animated series premiering solely on Disney+ including Falcon and the Winter Soldier (fall ’20, featuring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan), Wanda Vision (spring ’21), Loki (Tom Hiddleston donning the cape again in spring ’21), What If…? (summer ’21) and Hawkeye (with Jeremy Renner, fall ’21).

These series will dig deep into the outlying possibilities of Marvel, such as the animated What If…? which explores alternate scenarios — such as: what if Peggy Carter (voiced by Hayley Atwell) took up Captain America’s shield? Wanda Vision is a particularly under-wraps show that, as Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany teased onstage, could be a Dick Van Dyke Show-style sitcom crossed with a Marvel live-action series. But they really don’t know yet. 

Exclusive Disney content — like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series — is a big selling point for Disney’s streaming service.

In fact, the sky’s the limit. As Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president Sean Bailey noted, “The stories that we’re bringing in will be completely intertwined with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and bringing it to Disney+ is really exciting,” taking characters from previous films, but also dropping three new series — Ms. Marvel (the first Muslim Marvel superhero), She-Hulk and Moon Knight — all drawn from Marvel comics.

With an online menu divided into separate streaming categories, Disney+ will offer unprecedented access to its vast film and documentary archive, plus a library of TV series you won’t find elsewhere. As Walt Disney Studios co-chairman and CCO Alan Horn described it, “(Disney head) Bob Iger told me, ‘Let’s stop feeding (other streaming services with our content), and start our own service.’” With an initial slate that’s relatively smaller than some streaming services, the next year or two will see an onslaught of new content.

There will be tons of new Disney shows for kids and teens including the behind-the-scenes, meta-crazy High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which (confusing title aside) charts real-life East High School, where the original movie was filmed, as it prepares to stage its first production of High School Musical. Got it?

Then there’s Lizzie McGuire, who’s coming back in a series starring (wait for it…) Hillary Duff as Lizzie, now 30, living and working in Manhattan — but still hearing her 13-year-old cartoon voice in her head.

Pixar is also part of the mix, with Monsters at Work, which brings back original voice talent (Billy Crystal, John Goodman) to follow the day-to-day behind-the-scenes goings-on at Monsters, Inc.; plus a series of shorts called Forky Asks a Question featuring Toy Story 4’s plastic buddy (voiced by Tony Hale).

Disney+ also includes all 30 seasons of The Simpsons (creator Matt Groening was there for the D23 launch) and other Fox content, Hulu content (The Handmaid’s Tale, Catch-22 and other productions), and National Geographic, which offers series like The World According to Jeff Goldblum (the preternaturally curious actor digging into topics like ice cream, tattoos, line dancing and ghosts) and a reboot of Brain Games hosted by the brainy Keegan-Michael Key.

As Direct-to-Consumer & International chairman Kevin Mayer explains, Disney+ will have three tiers: you can sign up for the “family-friendly” Disney+ content that’s “appropriate for people with kids”; you can add Hulu, with its ABC and FX adult-friendly content; and you can even add ESPN+, which covers some 10,000 sporting events worldwide, including some exclusive coverage such as UFC. Disney’s acquisition of India’s Star channels means there will be some 60 channels of news, movies, and sports, including very popular cricket coverage.

“It’s a really great place to be at,” said Mayer. “We now have enough content and content creation to depend on ourselves.” 

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