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.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes remixes beats from the franchise’s previous films to tell a story about how myths evolve.
After announcing the new live-action Fantastic Four leads, Marvel revealed that Julia Garner will play a new version of the Silver Surfer, now Deadline is reporting that they’ll all be beefing with Ralph Ineson’s Galactus when the movie hits theaters.
In its first teaser, the new LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy (on Disney Plus September 13th) goes where no Star Wars production has gone before by entering Darth Jar Jar into the canon.
Just kidding, it’s not canon. But it does look like a fun DC Elseworlds or Marvel’s What If...? kind of approach, which I’d like more of (no multiverse though, please).
Here’s your reminder that Disney’s latest animated anthology series, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, started streaming today.
The six-episode miniseries may not quite be enough to tide everyone over until The Acolyte’s June 4th release, though — the longest episode clocks in at just 19 minutes.
The contest (rules here) runs from May 4th through June 4th. Autodesk provides certain assets like the Star Wars alphabet and symbols, as well as 30 day free trials of Autodesk software.
Prizes include Autodesk fabricating the winning overall droid and a paid trip for the winning designer (with lodging and a plus one!) to San Francisco to tour Industrial Light and Magic Studios.
Star Wars Day doesn’t technically kick off until May 4th, but Apple is celebrating the event a bit early with a precision finding-focused iPhone 15 ad spot starring a squad of (cosplayer) Mandalorians.
Disney Plus has never hosted “Dad Baby” — likely because it depicts Bluey’s dad Bandit pretending to give birth to his daughter Bingo — but the entire episode is now available to watch online via the official Bluey YouTube channel.
Despite Dad Baby’s cult status, it’s actually one of several episodes of the Australian children’s TV show hit with censorship.
Disney Plus is well on its way to becoming a cable channel, and the final trailer for X-Men ‘97 makes it feel like the series is going to be following suit given the Cable of it all.
Given the success of Disney’s “live-action” remake of The Lion King, a prequel seemed inevitable, so here we are with Mufasa. It looks a lot like the original, only this time they added an ice level and a villain voiced by Mads Mikkelsen. It hits theaters on December 20th.
According to the WSJ, Amazon, YouTube, and Peacock are all in the mix alongside incumbents Warner and Disney, with the possibility of snagging global streaming rights for some games.
When these deals kick in after 2024-2025, they’ll exist alongside the three-headed effort from Disney, Fox, and WBD, standalone ESPN, Netflix and the WWE, the NBA’s FAST channel and who knows what else.
Jim Henson Idea Man, Ron Howard’s new Disney Plus documentary about the man who dreamt up the Muppets, is obviously going to have its lighthearted moments. But the doc’s first trailer makes it feel like a sentimental tearjerker that will have people putting on their favorite Henson productions after it debuts on May 31st.
Aaron LaBerge is a big name at ESPN and Disney — he’s been there most of the last two decades, overseeing a lot of big projects including the recent Hulu / Disney Plus combination. He cited “personal reasons” for leaving in a note to staff, but also has a new job: after working on the joint betting project between ESPN and Penn Entertainment, he’s Penn’s new CTO.
Today’s episode of Decoder is all about Disney, the massive activist investor revolt it just fought off, and what happens next in the world of streaming. Earlier this month, Disney survived an attempted board takeover from businessman Nelson Peltz. While investors overwhelmingly sided with Disney and CEO Bob Iger, the boardroom showdown made something very clear: Disney needs to figure out streaming and get its creative direction back on track.
To help me better understand what’s happening here, I brought on my friend Julia Alexander, who is VP of strategy at Parrot Analytics, a Puck News news contributor, and, most importantly, a former Verge reporter. She’s a leading expert on all things Disney, and I always learn something important about the state of the entertainment business when I talk to her.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) wrote a letter to the CEOs of all three companies to ask about the service’s pricing and its potential impacts.
We’ve written a lot about why the price of streaming services has gone up, but this video from our friends at Vox breaks it all down.
And so I’m warning you. If you haven’t watched X-Men ‘97’s fifth episode, take extra care with TikTok’s search function, as today, one of the trending topics’ names might spoil a big development for you (as it just did me).
Instead of tapping TikTok’s search icon, I’d suggest reading Charles’ interview with the show’s sound designers.
While the new season of Doctor Who premiering next month will focus on Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor and Milie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday, the BBC has announced that Andor’s Varada Sethu is joining cast as yet another new companion who will appear in the show’s next season premiering in 2025.
Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris — which is basically a “meh” version of its Hollywood Studios park in Orlando — is getting some goodies, including a “brand-new immersive world” that hasn’t yet been announced.
Some of the other stuff coming to the newly renamed “Disney Adventure World” include a redesigned park entrance, a Frozen-themed world, a Tangled-themed ride, and new shopping and hotel options.
To create the X-Men ‘97 score, Andy Grush and Taylor Stewart had to work through their nostalgia and create new sounds from the future.
Disney is showcasing some of the incredible technology and design developments that go into its theme parks in its “We Call It Imagineering” YouTube series.
The first episode features audio-animatronics for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (which is replacing Splash Mountain), including Tiana herself and the massive trumpet-playing alligator Louis from The Princess and the Frog. Plus, a cameo from these delightful droids!
Following a drawn-out proxy fight, CEO Bob Iger gave investors a pep talk about the future of Disney, including its goals of launching a streaming-only version of ESPN in 2025:
This will give consumers the ability to stream their favorite live games and studio programming, and take advantage of an immersive, customizable sports experience that includes betting, fantasy sports, e-commerce, and more.
Iger also mentioned ESPN’s joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, while adding that Disney’s suite of streaming services will reach profitability by the end of this fiscal year.
[The Walt Disney Company]
Commenters on the second Doctor Who trailer really love Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor saying, “I will shatter this silly little battlefield into dust.”
I’m sure they’re right and that’s a better line, but I love the exuberance of “space babies!” (even if talking babies still look terrible in the year of our lord 2024). The new season hits Disney Plus on May 10th (or BBC iPlayer in the UK on May 11th).
Both sides came to an agreement on Wednesday that would end a nearly two-year-long legal battle over the self-governed special district that DeSantis took over from Disney.
Disney agreed to recognize its last-minute rule change in the district in 2023 as “null and void.” The company also agreed to drop its public records lawsuit against the district.
[POLITICO]
