Disney+ launching in the US in November
The Walt Disney Company has revealed during its Investor Day that the Disney+ service will be launching on November 12 this year in the US, costing $6.99 USD a month and featuring brands like Pixar, Marvel, and National Geographic.
"Disney+ marks a bold step forward in an exciting new era for our company—one in which consumers will have a direct connection to the incredible array of creative content that is The Walt Disney Company's hallmark. We are confident that the combination of our unrivaled storytelling, beloved brands, iconic franchises, and cutting-edge technology will make Disney+ a standout in the marketplace, and deliver significant value for consumers and shareholders alike," Chairman and CEO Robert Iger said.
In its first year Disney+ will release over 25 original series and 10 original films, documentaries, and specials, including The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a live-action series with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. WandaVision is another live-action series on the way, with Elizabeth Olsen playing Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany reprising the role of The Vision. Marvel's What If...?, however, is the first animated series from Marvel Studios, exploring pivotal moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking of Marvel, Variety has recently reported that a Hawkeye series is also in the works for Disney+, seeing Jeremy Renner reprise his role as the hero, although this isn't officially confirmed.
Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 will give a behind-the-scenes look at making the upcoming sequel, while a Toy Story series called Forky Asks a Question will be landing alongside Lamp Life.
As for National Geographic, they're bringing The World According to Jeff Goldblum, as well as the series Magic of the Animal Kingdom, giving a look at the animal experts at Animal Kingdom and Epcot's SeaBase aquarium.
Alongside The Phineas and Ferb Movie, we also have other previously-announced projects coming to the service, including The Mandalorian Star Wars series; the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars; High School Musical: The Musical: The Series; the Cassian Andor series starring Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk; the Marvel series Loki starring Tom Hiddleston; Monsters at Work, Diary of a Female President; and live-action films such as Lady and the Tramp, Noelle, Togo, Timmy Failure, and Stargirl.
We'll also be getting non fiction series such as Be Our Chef, Cinema Relics: Iconic Art of the Movies (working title), Earthkeepers (working title), Encore!, the untitled Walt Disney Imagineering documentary series, Marvel's 616, Marvel's Hero Project, (Re)Connect, Rogue Trip, and Shop Class (working title).
As of all this wasn't enough, all 30 seasons of The Simpsons will be available from day one too, not to mention other Fox titles like The Sound of Music, The Princess Bride, and Malcolm in the Middle.
"We're extremely excited about our growing portfolio of direct-to-consumer offerings. As we demonstrated today, with Disney+ we will deliver extraordinary entertainment in innovative ways to audiences around the world," added chairman Kevin Mayer. "We'll continue to enhance the user experience with a constant pipeline of high-quality programming, making the service even more appealing to consumers."
A video on the announcement page also showed how the service will look, including dedicated pages for Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and more. Users are able to create custom profiles, each of which has a personalised experience curated to their tastes based on past experience.
You can use the service on smart TVs, gaming consoles, mobiles, and more, with support for 4K HDR video playback and offline viewing for some content.
After the US release Disney aims to bring Disney+ to "nearly all major regions of the world within the next two years," so it's just a case of waiting for an announcement regarding your region.
Can this compete with the big dogs like Netflix?
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