You may recall waaaaaay back in January 2020, Variety broke the news that Disney was reviving the unique fantasy competition series, The Quest, for Disney+. The series ran for 1 season back in 2014 and originally featured adults, but this new version would feature teenagers.
You probably assumed, as we all did, that it met the same fate as their other 2018 – early 2020 announced series which were never heard from again, lost in the pandemic void. Remember Life After Deaf, Biggest Star in Appleton, Ink & Paint, (Re)Connect, People & Places (another revival), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and The Maze? Yeah, neither does Disney.
Well, have we got news for you. Way, way back in April, Deadline spoke with the creators of ABC’s mega-hit series, The Amazing Race (a series that belongs on Disney+), about their then-new Nat Geo series, Race to the Center of the Earth. One tidbit that went unreported by Disney sites at the time is that they snuck in a confirmation their planned revival of The Quest had actually just wrapped its first season with zero CoVid cases.
Add that to the list of series tackily unmentioned at Disney+ Day. Totally sensible decision to ignore Crater, The Quest, Three Men and a Baby, Greek Freak, Mighty Ducks Game Changers, Big Shot, Mysterious Benedict Society, Andor, Bad Batch… and all the other titles coming sooner. Gotta promote 2023 titles with logos, again, in case people missed them at Investor Day December 2020!
Anyway, we’ve been sitting on this information a month as we waited to see if it would appear on the December list. Now that it did not we can confirm you’ll be seeing The Maze in 2022. The next question (and we shouldn’t even have to ask….) is will they add the original series? We would absolutely not be remotely surprised if they move the series to Hulu along simply because the original was an “ABC” series…
How Can I Watch The Original?
Right now in the USA one can actually stream the original via ABC.com under their Throwbacks tab which is another choice…
Disney needs series like this on Disney+. One of the many, many, issues with Disney+ library is the almost TOTAL absence of all their Disney Channel unscripted series. Paramount+ is brimming with classic Nickelodeon game shows, unscripted interstitials, etc. Where are Code: 9, PrankStars, Win, Lose, or Draw? (classic and 2014 reboot), Mike’s Super Short Show, Disney 365, Pass the Plate, etc.?
We wouldn’t be surprised if the forgotten series (Re)Connect or The Maze also appear in 2022 as both of them had casting calls sent out before the pandemic. They may have secretly filmed those as well.
Are you excited to know The Maze is actually coming? Which of their other “forgotten” series do you think will still show up?
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.
