This past week we had some really exciting, some re-released and some mediocre announcements. Here is DejaviewStream’s analysis of the Disney+ Day and this previous week!
Marvel
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Available Now
- Marvel Studios’ 2021 Disney+ Day Special: Available Now
- Hawkeye: November 24
- Moon Knight: 2022
- She-Hulk: 2022
- Ms. Marvel: 2022
- What If …? Season 2: 2022
- Secret Invasion: 2022
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: 2022
- Echo: ?
- Ironheart: ?
- Agatha: House of Harkness: ?
- X-MEN ’97: ?
- Spider-Man: Freshman Year: ?
- I Am Groot: ?
- Marvel Zombies: ?
Disney
- Intertwined (Entrelazados): Available Now
- Home Sweet Home Alone: Available Now
- The World According to Jeff Goldblum Season 2: First 5 Episodes Available Now
- The Beatles: Get Back: November 25
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: December 3, 2021
- Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild: January 28, 2022
- The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: February 2022
- Sneakerella: February 18, 2022
- Cheaper by the Dozen: March 2022
- Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers: Spring 2022
- Baymax: Summer 2022
- Pinocchio: Fall 2022
- Disenchanted: Fall 2022
- Hocus Pocus 2: Fall 2022
- High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: ?
- Zootopia+: 2022
- Better Nate Than Ever: 2022
- Rodrick Rules: 2022
- Tiana: 2023
- The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Spiderwick Chronicles: Disney+ announced a new live-action series, “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” a modern coming-of-age story combined with fantasy adventure from Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television, one of the Disney Television Studios. The series, based on the beloved, best-selling books, follows the Grace Family—twin brothers Jared and Simon, their sister Mallory and mother Helen—as they move into their dilapidated ancestral home. They begin to unravel a dark mystery about their great-great Uncle who once discovered the secret and sometimes dangerous faerie world
Lucasfilm (Star Wars)
- Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett: Available Now
- Willow: 2022
- Obi-Wan Kenobi: 2022
Pixar
- Pixar 2021 Disney+ Day Special: Available Now
- Cars on the Road: 2022
- Win or Lose: 2023
National Geographic
- Welcome to Earth: December 8, 2021
- America The Beautiful: 2022
- Limitless with Chris Hemsworth: 2022
- Rosaline: 2022
- The Princess: Summer 2022
- Prey: Summer 2022
- No Exit: 2022
How To Continue Growth?
On the quarterly earnings call, which took place a few days prior, Bob Chapek stated that the area where they see potential growth is in preschool content. They currently have about 15 preschool shows in development and more on their way. This reinforces the notion that Disney+ is not a 4 quadrant service. Though they have “adult content” for Marvel and Nat Geo fans, there is a serious need for shows below the core branding. Its been known for a while that Disney is having an internal battle with themselves. Do we commit to adult or do we stay focused on the original Disney direction? Internationally, Star has proven the debate is unnecessary.
Chapek also stated in the quarterly earnings that they’ll be increasing content spend in different regions around the world. He said that they plan on doubling countries launched by 2023 to 160. Next year, they plan on launching in Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East, and South Africa. Will that be enough to globally outperform their biggest competitor Netflix?
Content will be in full production mode and we’ll see those affect subscriptions comes quarter 4 in 2022. We expect a content drought with very little content released until then. Is this service really worth your money if they continue to consistently release nothing weekly?
- Buy out Hulu Stake
- Buy out Starz content
- Buy Lionsgate
What Shocked Us…
- Almost complete silence on Star Wars – no promo of Mandalorian season 3, their flagship series, Book of Boba Fett, their next series, or previously announced series Ahsoka, Lando, The Acolyte. Not only that, but their video at the end of the tweetstorm showed logos for Boba Fett, Andor, and Bad Batch season 2. It’s clear someone screwed up. These were the only title logos featured that didn’t appear in the tweetstorm.
- Complete silence on their library. Except this wasn’t shocking. It’s totally how they are even as they new Enchanted was major enough to be a global add..
- Ignoring the series that kept the service stacked this year – Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Big Shot, and Mysterious Benedict Society have been renewed but only High School Musical the Musical The Series upcoming season featured in their tweetstorm. Bad optics to everyone involved with those series.
- No renewals for completed seasons of shows like Doogie Kamealoha, Turner & Hooch, Chip N Dale: Park Life, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Diary of a Future President, or Just Beyond.
- Date for the next Marvel series (after Hawkeye)
- Date for the next Star Wars series (after Boba Fett)
- The Crater, a film that wrapped months ago, receiving no acknowledgment.
- No news on the Giannis film, Rise, which premieres in 2022 either.
What We Hoped For…:
- News on The Quest (we can scoop / confirm it was FILMED this past year and is ready for release)
- News on their forgotten series announced in 2018-early 2020: Ink & Paint, People & Places, ReConnect, Life After Deaf, Biggest Star in Appleton, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
- News on Aladdin: Live from the West End – leaked as in their library November 2020 (1 year ago).
- Renewals for Doogie Kamealoha, Turner & Hooch, Chip N Dale: Park Life, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Diary of a Future President, or Just Beyond.
- Missing legacy News such as House of Mouse and…
- A roadmap for library titles
- Something like Netflix’s campaign this year where they had a new film every week. Disney has enough they could have announced a new film every month if they were thinking about building hype and faith.
- A watchlist row (like Star+ and every other streaming service except Hulu and Disney+)
Our Take:
Wall Street isn’t impressed anymore. They’ve lost faith. For years Disney has been promising the next year would be better and talking about titles 2 years out. This year we saw them delay anywhere from 10-30 country launches scheduled for the summer / fall. Eastern Europe is still waiting. We saw far fewer library titles added in YEAR 2 than YEAR 1 (for stats read our monthly library breakdowns) despite the pandemic which should have supercharged them and made them ramp it up while their originals faced delays.
The Good
The content they added for this anniversary was enjoyable. Enchanted is long overdue. The user interface upgrades were also highly necessary and very appreciated. The Coming Soon section should lead to them doing more “Coming Soon” pages which is great.
The Bad
The tweetstorm was horrible. Basically everyone’s reaction to this was negative. Even the more “positive” members of the community. People commented on how strange it was to do this instead of a livestream or event. It was overwhelming to see so many tweets pouring in and as some one said “so much info and yet none at all.” Variety expertly picked it apart. Most of it was regurgitated Disney Investor Day 2020 reveals being re-revealed.
Most of the tweets were logos and most of the titles didn’t even receive release windows. Those that did were few and even fewer still received their premiere date. It’s hard to get hyped for shows in 2023. They were inconsistent and named some 2023 titles but not others. They should have stuck to 2022 releases only. They should not have skipped 10 big 2022 releases.
Bob Chapek overhyped the event when he announced it. It’s not cool to say “this event is going to convince people to sign up who were holding off all this time.” Yeah… sure Bob. You basically re-announced the same things from last year and provided barely any news on the next 6 months worth of content. Choose your words better, please.
Our Verdict
Fantastic? Flop? Fantastic flop?
We’re gonna say it falls right between fantastic and flop, leaning towards FLOP. We can’t call the day that brought Enchanted and UI upgrades a flop.
Gregory Bertrand is a film and television enthusiast. His degree in Early Childhood Education is from Saint Cloud State University and he’s currently teaching in a school. When he isn’t shaping young minds, he spends his time researching, analyzing, and documenting Walt Disney contractual obligations while streaming a slew of old and original content.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
