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.
Finally we can see what all the fuss was about! Here’s how it apparently works. Shame you can’t touch one, not even if you pay thousands to stay in the fancy Star Wars hotel.
Disney also showed off a new robotic stuntbunny: Judy from Zootopia.
One year after the grand opening of its incredibly detailed Star Wars-themed hotel, Disney may have finally realized that not everyone has $5,000 to spend on a two-night “voyage” aboard the Halcyon.
Disney confirmed to the Theme Park Tourist that it will only schedule voyages two days per week starting in October, down from the three to four weekly bookings it offers right now. It’s too bad Disney didn’t take this as an opportunity to lower the price instead.
And then what if Marvel Studios made sure that the episode introducing Kahhori, the MCU’s new character who hails from the precolonial Haudenosaunee Confederacy, was “created in close collaboration with members of the Mohawk Nation” in order to make sure her debut was both respectful and authentic to Haudenosaunee culture?
You know, what if?
The Mandalorian’s Chapter 17: The Apostate is a big, breezy, and action-packed reminder that Star Wars has always been a magical space adventure for new fans first and everyone else second.
Feeling insecure about the Canadian presence on digital streamers and social media, the Canadian government is days away from passing a law requiring more Canadian content on TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix and so on...
The idea, said Peter Menzies, a former official at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, is to promote Canadian artists, tell Canadian stories and “defend Canada from being completely swamped by American programming.”
Sad, isn’t it?
Disney’s brilliant new Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur cartoon has smarts, style, substance, and one hell of a musical score.
‘When I watched cartoons as a kid, there was a lot of serious orchestration. A lot of funk, a lot of R&B, and a lot of soul — all kinds of different styles of music. I wanted that for Moon Girl, too.’
After reports detailing the domestic violence charges Justin Roiland is facing first surfaced last month, it seemed like Adult Swim might not have been sure about how to proceed. Eventually, Roiland was fired by Adult Swim, Hulu, and Squanch Games.
But according to The Hollywood Reporter, that decision only came down after Rick and Morty’s staff sent a pointed letter to Adult Swim and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery demanding answers about whether Roiland would continue working for them.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
According to a report from Bloomberg, Disney CEO Bob Iger is weighing the idea of licensing more original shows and movies to rival media companies.
Aside from raising prices on subscribers, licensing content to other services is just one of the ways Disney can make more money and reverse the $1.5 billion its streaming business lost last quarter.
Breaking news: Deadline reports that King of The Hill will return, and there’s no way in hell the lord of propane is going to allow lawmakers to seize gas stoves from the people.
Welcome to America. We sell propane and propane accessories.
Octavia Butler’s Kindred will always be one of her most powerful works, but FX’s haphazard adaptation of the novel has been canceled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
As Deadline notes, it’s rare for FX to sunset its originals after just one season. But at a time when FX parent company Disney is trying to trim costs, this kind of sudden cancellation doesn’t come as a surprise.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
The Mandalorian’s second season didn’t really delve into what being a re-appointed Nevarro’s High Magistrate would mean for Carl Weathers’ Greef Karga going forward.
But in a recent interview with Gambit, Weathers — who’s stepping behind the camera once again to direct an episode — says that’s going to change in The Mandalorian’s third season as it catches up with Greef while he’s “trying to keep Nevarro a safe place and place that you might want to call home.”
CNBC has lots more, but you know things are getting weird when the slide deck Disney filed to SEC flat-out says “Nelson Peltz does not understand Disney’s businesses and lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem.”
Pedro Pascal already had one major premiere over the weekend as The Last of Us started airing on HBO / HBO Max.
Now Disney Plus has released a full trailer (following an earlier teaser full of some familiar faces) for the next season of The Mandalorian. Season three will debut March 1st.
Hello my fellow geriatric millennials (and everyone else), remember Willow? The movie starring Warwick Davies and Val Kilmer got a TV show sequel, also called Willow, and its first season is concluding today on Disney Plus. With snappy, if modern, dialogue, an incredible wealth of young acting talent, and a myriad of terrifying and/or goofy monsters, this adventure story has been a blast.
The original ride opened at Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, and it’s hitting the US in just a few more months. It’s based on Tron: Legacy, the problematic sequel with the killer Daft Punk soundtrack. I enjoyed the movie, but Disney Park prices are so high these days... will you go? Here are more videos of the ride.
Keep an eye on this page; we’ll post the Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer once it’s available after premiering during the college football National Championship game between TCU and Georgia.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marked the end of Phase 4 for Marvel’s exploding cinematic universe of movies and TV shows, and this flick will kick off Phase 5 before Phase 6 starts with a new Fantastic Four flick in 2024.
Update: And here it is, if you’ve missed it somehow.
