Concrete news about Disney's upcoming standalone streaming service has been pretty scarce since the initial announcement, but CEO Bob Iger unleashed a gorgeous display of new projects today for fans of both TV and the many brands beneath the House of Mouse umbrella. Beyond a new trilogy of Star Wars films, Disney is also going into development on new TV series involving Marvel, Star Wars, Monsters Inc. and High School Musical. Plus, we even have an idea of what the price will be.
During a conference call today with investors, Disney chief Bob Iger laid it out there that the company's streaming service -- which will deplete a section of Netflix's library -- will be priced "substantially below" what Netflix charges, according to Variety. The reason for that is largely due to the limited batch of movies and shows available to day-one subscribers; but also, Disney doesn't need to charge that much, considering the company's business model and revenue stream are just a tad different from Netflix's. But with all the new projects that are being made for the service, it'll be interesting to see how much Disney eventually spends on original programming. Let's dive into what we know about the new stuff.
At this point, the Marvel project was referred to as an original entry, which are the most vague and imagination-provoking words possible. While Disney has been behind live-action dramas like ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Netflix's Defenders-verse, the Disney-branded channels have only focused on animated Marvel series like Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, and the upcoming Big Hero 6 series. Could the latter be the kind of original entry they're talking about, or could "original" mean the first-live action take on an existing character?
News about Rian Johnson's new trilogy of Star Wars films had quite a bit more information attached. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the announcement of the long-awaited live-action Star Wars TV series. The streaming service is set to debut before 2019 ends, which means we'll be another few films deeper into the expanding Star Wars universe, making it harder to predict anything about what the live-action series would incorporate. (But you can read more about that here.)
We're also going to get a TV series version of the High School Musical film franchise, which has maintained its popularity over the years. It would likely involve a new batch of teens showing off their talents, but it will be interesting to see if any of the former stars will return. Attempts have been made to bring a High School Musical episodic spinoff into existence, but it hasn't happened. Unless we're counting the reality competition series High School Musical: Get in the Picture.
We've mentioned the series adaptations for both Guardians of the Galaxy and Big Hero 6, which are both part of Disney's most recent franchise expansions, though a Monsters Inc. TV series probably skews closer to the Tangled: Ever After side of the company's TV offshoots. The Pixar hit already had the college-based sequel Monsters University, but the scare-a-kid set-up is an easy fit for TV, especially with an expanding world of weirdo monsters to explore. It's not likely Billy Crystal and John Goodman would return to reprise their roles, but that would be boo-tiful.
We'll still be waiting a while to see what all of these new projects will look like. There are still more shows left to debut this year, too, which you can find on our fall TV premiere schedule.
