Following her film debut in 2021’s West Side Story, Rachel Zegler has continued to establish herself has one of Hollywood’s best young talents thanks to the 2023 movie releases Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the former of which came out in March and the latter of which arrives next month. Looking ahead to 2024, Zegler will star arguably her biggest movie yet: Disney’s Snow White (no, she wasn’t fired from the live-action remake). However, the actress has another magical princess movie on the way, though it now has a new streaming home.
Until today, the plan was for Skydance Animation’s Spellbound to be released to Apple TV+ subscribers, just like what’d been done with last year’s Luck. That plan as now been scrapped as a result of Skydance’s animated division and Apple going their separate ways. Instead, as reported by THR and other outlets, Spellbound will now be released on Netflix sometime in 2024 as part of a multiyear pact Skydance Animation signed with the streaming service.
To be clear, Apple will remain partnered with Skydance when it comes to live-action movies, with that partnership having already delivered flicks like The Greatest Beer Run Ever and Ghosted. Skydance’s animated TV series WondLa will also still be released on Apple TV+, but when it comes to future animated movies from the John Lasseter-led studio, you’ll need a Netflix subscription to view them. Along with Spellbound, this includes Pookoo, which is expected to come out in 2025, and Ray Gunn.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time that Netflix and Skydance have teamed up, as if you head to the streaming platform, you’ll see offerings from the latter like The Old Guard, The Adam Project, FUBAR and Grace and Frankie. However, this animation-centric deal comes as Netflix is reportedly in the midst of a major animation shakeup, with Variety sharing earlier this month that job cuts are coming for this corner of the company. Additionally, the upcoming movie Escape from Beverly Hills will be shopped elsewhere, and Tunga, which Netflix won at auction in 2019, has reentered development.
As far as Spellbound goes, the now-Netflix movie stars Rachel Zegler as Princess Ellian, a young woman who embarks on a journey to break a spell that’s split her home kingdom of Lumbria in two. Zegler’s costars include Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis and Nathan Lane, among others. Vicky Jenson directed the feature, and Linda Woolverton, Lauren Hynes and Elizabeth Martin all worked on the script.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Spellbound ends up slotting in before or after Snow White on the 2024 movies calendar, but at least Rachel Zegler fans now know they’ll need to go to Netflix rather than Apple TV+ to catch her first animated movie. The actress will also star in Y2K and Paddington in Peru, both of which are currently undated.
