Once the public face of squeaky-clean, harmless family entertainment, the Walt Disney Corporation has evolved into a widespread conglomerate known as much for the properties it controls as the films it produces. With subsidiaries including Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, A&E, 20th Century Fox, ESPN, Hulu, and Pixar, Disney has a commanding control of some of the world’s most lucrative franchises, plus an extensive library of film and TV classics. Its streaming service Disney+ signals a new interest in controlling its own online distribution, setting aside decades of licensing partnerships. Follow along with The Verge as we look at Disney’s new films and shows, and its strategies for dominating the box office and the streaming dollar.
According to the WSJ, Amazon, YouTube, and Peacock are all in the mix alongside incumbents Warner and Disney, with the possibility of snagging global streaming rights for some games.
When these deals kick in after 2024-2025, they’ll exist alongside the three-headed effort from Disney, Fox, and WBD, standalone ESPN, Netflix and the WWE, the NBA’s FAST channel and who knows what else.
Jim Henson Idea Man, Ron Howard’s new Disney Plus documentary about the man who dreamt up the Muppets, is obviously going to have its lighthearted moments. But the doc’s first trailer makes it feel like a sentimental tearjerker that will have people putting on their favorite Henson productions after it debuts on May 31st.
Aaron LaBerge is a big name at ESPN and Disney — he’s been there most of the last two decades, overseeing a lot of big projects including the recent Hulu / Disney Plus combination. He cited “personal reasons” for leaving in a note to staff, but also has a new job: after working on the joint betting project between ESPN and Penn Entertainment, he’s Penn’s new CTO.
Today’s episode of Decoder is all about Disney, the massive activist investor revolt it just fought off, and what happens next in the world of streaming. Earlier this month, Disney survived an attempted board takeover from businessman Nelson Peltz. While investors overwhelmingly sided with Disney and CEO Bob Iger, the boardroom showdown made something very clear: Disney needs to figure out streaming and get its creative direction back on track.
To help me better understand what’s happening here, I brought on my friend Julia Alexander, who is VP of strategy at Parrot Analytics, a Puck News news contributor, and, most importantly, a former Verge reporter. She’s a leading expert on all things Disney, and I always learn something important about the state of the entertainment business when I talk to her.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) wrote a letter to the CEOs of all three companies to ask about the service’s pricing and its potential impacts.
We’ve written a lot about why the price of streaming services has gone up, but this video from our friends at Vox breaks it all down.
And so I’m warning you. If you haven’t watched X-Men ‘97’s fifth episode, take extra care with TikTok’s search function, as today, one of the trending topics’ names might spoil a big development for you (as it just did me).
Instead of tapping TikTok’s search icon, I’d suggest reading Charles’ interview with the show’s sound designers.
While the new season of Doctor Who premiering next month will focus on Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor and Milie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday, the BBC has announced that Andor’s Varada Sethu is joining cast as yet another new companion who will appear in the show’s next season premiering in 2025.
Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris — which is basically a “meh” version of its Hollywood Studios park in Orlando — is getting some goodies, including a “brand-new immersive world” that hasn’t yet been announced.
Some of the other stuff coming to the newly renamed “Disney Adventure World” include a redesigned park entrance, a Frozen-themed world, a Tangled-themed ride, and new shopping and hotel options.
To create the X-Men ‘97 score, Andy Grush and Taylor Stewart had to work through their nostalgia and create new sounds from the future.
Disney is showcasing some of the incredible technology and design developments that go into its theme parks in its “We Call It Imagineering” YouTube series.
The first episode features audio-animatronics for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (which is replacing Splash Mountain), including Tiana herself and the massive trumpet-playing alligator Louis from The Princess and the Frog. Plus, a cameo from these delightful droids!
Following a drawn-out proxy fight, CEO Bob Iger gave investors a pep talk about the future of Disney, including its goals of launching a streaming-only version of ESPN in 2025:
This will give consumers the ability to stream their favorite live games and studio programming, and take advantage of an immersive, customizable sports experience that includes betting, fantasy sports, e-commerce, and more.
Iger also mentioned ESPN’s joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, while adding that Disney’s suite of streaming services will reach profitability by the end of this fiscal year.
[The Walt Disney Company]
Commenters on the second Doctor Who trailer really love Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor saying, “I will shatter this silly little battlefield into dust.”
I’m sure they’re right and that’s a better line, but I love the exuberance of “space babies!” (even if talking babies still look terrible in the year of our lord 2024). The new season hits Disney Plus on May 10th (or BBC iPlayer in the UK on May 11th).
Both sides came to an agreement on Wednesday that would end a nearly two-year-long legal battle over the self-governed special district that DeSantis took over from Disney.
Disney agreed to recognize its last-minute rule change in the district in 2023 as “null and void.” The company also agreed to drop its public records lawsuit against the district.
[POLITICO]
The marketing team for the longtime sci-fi series halted its use of generative AI for Doctor Who marketing emails following complaints, reports Deadline.
As part of a small trial, marketing teams used generative AI technology to help draft some text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications to highlight Doctor Who programming available on the BBC.
We followed all BBC editorial compliance processes and the final text was verified and signed-off by a member of the marketing team before it was sent. We have no plans to do this again to promote Doctor Who.
Disney Plus’ new X-Men animated series is a throwback to the days when comics adaptations could focus on their own stories instead of cinematic franchises.
Live-action Star Wars show The Acolyte will bring the High Republic era of the franchise to TV for the first time on June 4th.
StarWars.com announced the show’s premiere date with this less-than-subtle bloody lightsaber poster, reading “In an age of light a darkness rises.” Spoooooooky. Also, the site says to expect the series’ official teaser trailer tomorrow.
You can easily watch most of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man movies on Disney Plus if the mood strikes you. But if you’ve been yearning to see Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland’s Peters Parker back on the big screen, you’ll have a shot at catching all eight of the past Spidey films in select theaters beginning April 15th.
There’s a lot in this Wall Street Journal profile of ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro. The switch to streaming; the Hulu for Sports plan; the battle over ever-more-expensive sports rights. But the undercurrent here is pretty clear: if ESPN can make all that work over the next couple of years, Pitaro might get Bob Iger’s office. (But that’s a really, really big if.)
It’s kind of telling how X-Men ‘97’s creator / showrunner Beau DeMayo isn’t featured in this new sizzle reel hyping up the show before its March 20th premiere, but the cast seems pretty excited to be back voicing their iconic roles.
An alternate game feed on ESPN Plus, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Plus will present today’s Bruins vs. Penguins matchup as the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2. It goes beyond Nickelodeon’s slime-filled Super Bowl feed by using NHL EDGE positional data and Hawk-Eye optical tracking to turn real action into an animated version.
Sportico explains that to control their animated avatars, commentators have replaced the motion-capture suits they wore for the first game with Meta Quest Pro headsets.
Charter’s Spectrum TV Plus customers can now access ESPN Plus (which usually costs $10.99 / month) with their cable subscription. It’s all part of the bundle Charter announced with Disney last year, which also brought Disney Plus to Spectrum customers in January.
Pixar’s first Inside Out film led with a cast of emotions most young viewers could probably identify as things they’d experienced themselves. But Inside Out 2’s introduction of feelings like Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), seems primed to leave teens with a new way of articulating that dreadful, existential je ne sais quoi they’re always feeling.
The film hits theaters on June 14th.
