Disney News

Category: Star Wars

  • These 4 TV Shows Could Make Disney Streaming a Must Have

    These 4 TV Shows Could Make Disney Streaming a Must Have

    In the wake of lower than expected earnings reports, Disney has announced a slew of new programs in the works intended to help jump start their the new Disney streaming service.

    Disney is developing a new Marvel television series, a live-action Star Wars television series and a new trilogy of live-action films from a galaxy far, far away under Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson.

    The Marvel and Star Wars television series will make their exclusive debut on Disney’s forthcoming streaming service, set to launch in 2019, with the service also poised to offer television series based on Disney/Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. franchise and Disney Channel’s tween-aimed High School Musical franchise. Disney CEO-chairman Bob Iger announced the news Thursday.

    Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. grossed $577 million worldwide in 2001, with its prequel, Monsters University, scaring up $744 million worldwide in 2013. Both movies starred John Goodman and Billy Crystal as blue-furred James P. “Sulley” Sullivan and one-eyed Mike Wazowski, respectively, best friends and work partners who work as top employees at Monsters, Inc., Monstropolis’ energy-producing company. One of the most popular franchises under the Pixar brand, Monsters, Inc. has a presence in several of Disney’s theme parks across the globe, including Disney California Adventure, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland.

    Disney launched the High School Musical franchise in 2006, with the rom-com Disney Channel Original Movie giving way to a 2007 TV-movie sequel and a second sequel, 2008’s High School Musical 3: Senior Year, the first installment of the tween musical series to be released theatrically. The franchise will return to the small screen with High School Musical 4 under Jeffrey Hornaday, whI directed Teen Beach Movie and Teen Beach 2 — Disney Channel’s newest craze teen musicals.

    These shows already come with a huge fan base and will now be around to attract new generations of audiences. What Disney Movies would you like to turned into a TV series?

  • Live Action Star Wars Series to Air On Disney’s Streaming Service

    Live Action Star Wars Series to Air On Disney’s Streaming Service

    Star Wars - Fin and Rey

    Star Wars is getting the TV treatment with a forthcoming live-action series set to debut on Disney’s digital streaming service. The still-untitled service is set to launch in 2019.

    Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Bob Iger confirmed the project Thursday while on a quarterly earnings call with investors.

    Additionally, Iger revealed that new TV series based on the 2001 Pixar film Monsters Inc. (which also spawned the 2013 sequel Monsters University) and the Disney Channel film franchise High School Musical also will debut on the service.

    It also was announced that the Star Wars franchise will expand with the launch of a new trilogy of films fromLast Jedi director Rian Johnson. The new movies will be separate from the continuing Skywalker saga and “Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored,” according to an official announcement made by LucasFilm, which is owned by Disney. Johnson will write and direct the first film in the trilogy.

    That new trilogy comes as Lucasfilm also has Solo: A Star Wars Story due out May 25, 2018, and director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode IX, which is set to bow Dec. 20, 2019. The Last Jedi is slated for release Dec. 15.

    In addition to original programming on the streaming service, Iger said on the call that Disney will consider licensing programming from third parties. The exec also noted that ABC Studios could end up producing for the new service. ‘We’ve talked about that a bit,” he said.

    Although pricing is still being worked out, the plan is to offer the service for less than the price of Netflix, which currently costs $11 per month for its standard plan.

    On the topic of Netflix, Iger noted that he doesn’t necessarily see the streaming service as a competitor but as a means of helping Disney become “a viable player in the direct-to-consumer space, a space that we all know is a very compelling space to be in.”

    Disney’s ESPN service, meanwhile, will launch in spring 2018 and will be called ESPN Plus, Iger confirmed Thursday. The service will exclude sports that currently air on ESPN.

    While this will mark the first live-action Star Wars TV series, George Lucas’ franchise has spawned five animated series, going all the way back to 1985’s Star Wars: Droids, which aired on ABC (long before ABC and LucasFilm were under the same corporate umbrella), as did the second series, Star Wars: Ewoks. The most recent animated entry, Star Wars Rebels, airs on Disney XD, a sister network of Disney Channel. Next up is Star Wars: Force of Destiny, which will debut on YouTube. Both Rebels and Forces of Destiny are produced by LucasFilm Animation.

    Over the years, there have also been three live-action TV specials, most famously the widely lampooned Star Wars: Holiday Special that aired on CBS shortly after the original 1977 film’s release.

    News that a Star Wars live-action series will be premiering on Disney’s streaming service has to be disappointing for ABC, which is also owned by Disney. Network president Channing Dungey expressed her optimism about ABC possibly airing a new Star Wars series at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in 2016 and said talks about that possibility were ongoing.