TV shows based on Star Wars, High School Musical, Monsters, Inc. and a Marvel property are in development for Disney’s planned streaming service.
Bob Iger, the chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, made the announcement on Thursday in a quarterly earnings call.
The CEO also revealed that the streaming service will cost “substantially below” Netflix, which costs $7.99, $10.99 and $13.99 a month for standard, high, and ultra high definition streaming respectively. However, the price for Disney’s service will be adjusted as more content is added.
With the TV shows, Disney plans to put four to five original movies a year on the service. The Mouse House also said they are open to bringing third-parties in on the fun. This comes on the heels of Monday’s news about Disney’s unsuccessful talks about buying most of 21st Century Fox. Maybe Disney can get Avatar on loan.
The only detail revealed about the new TV shows is that the Star Wars one will be live-action, which is a first for the franchise after numerous animated ones. One of them, Star Wars Rebels, is airing its fourth and final season now on Disney XD.
The Monsters, Inc. show will also be the first Pixar TV series. The animation company has only dabbled in a few Toy Story holiday specials for ABC and shorts based on Cars characters that were mostly for Disney Channel.
The Disney streaming service was initially announced in an earnings report in August and given a 2019 release window. Disney currently has a streaming deal with Netflix that will end in 2018. When that happens, all of Disney’s content will be wiped from the service except for the Marvel-Netflix TV shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Now, it’s going to cost a few more bucks to easily stream your favorite songs from Moana on repeat.
Sources: CNBC, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
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