Get excited, Disney fans: a Disney streaming service is finally coming!
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced Thursday that the streaming service, called Disney+, will become available by late 2019. It will be chock-full of content from not just "the Mouse" itself, but many of its subsidiaries and entertainment franchises, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic.
Additionally, Iger also announced that the service will include Disney's theatrical releases beginning next year. And that's no small thing: Disney's 2019 slate includes a new Marvel "Avengers" film, live-action adaptations of Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Lady and the Tramp, which will feature the voices of Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux. And, surely to the delight (or vexation?) of parents everywhere, the platform will also feature Frozen 2, the sequel to the 2013 film that people still refuse to stop singing all the time five years later, especially now that we're heading into winter.
But there will be far more to Disney+ than what we think of as the typical Disney fare (that is, children's content). There will be live-action series based on High Fidelity and The Mighty Ducks, and sci-fi and comic fans will be spoiled for choice. Iger's announcement included two Star Wars series--an animated series called Clone Wars, and a live-action prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Jon Favreau; a Winter Solider and Falcon series featuring Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie; and a live-action Marvel series centering on the character Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston.
On Twitter, fans were hyped by the news!
Take heart, fans: from the sounds of it, the service will definitely be worth the wait. The service is widely believed to be an effort to compete with Netflix (from which Disney will pull its content before launching Disney+), especially given Iger's stated plans to take Disney+ into Europe as well. So all this content is only the beginning!
"[T]he launch of Disney+ will be just the starting point," Iger said. "We plan to continually elevate experience, enhance the value to consumers with a custom pipeline of exclusive new content as we move forward."
Only one year to wait!
H/T CNN Business, Polygon
