[NEWS] DISNEY+ TO LAUNCH NOVEMBER 2019 FOR $6.99 P/M

Last week, Disney gave new details regarding its Disney+ streaming service. Included in these announcements was confirmation of the various MCU spin-offs that were talked about last year. Loki, Falcon & Winter Soldier, and Vision & Wanda were the first ones announced. The latest MCU spin-off to officially be greenlit will be about Hawkeye starring Jeremy Renner. The series will be something along the lines of Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye and will include Renner passing the mantle to Kate Bishop. The announcement of Kate Bishop may have spoiled a plot point in Avengers: Endgame. One of the trailers features Hawkeye training a young woman in archery.

The Mandalorian will be available the day the service launches on November 12, 2019. The budget for The Mandalorian comes out to $100 million for the 10-episode season, which puts it in Game of Thrones territory. That will likely be the standard for Star Wars shows going forward. In other Star Wars news, Alan Tudyk is reprising the role of K-280 for the Cassian Andor show. Disney+ will also get 10 original films and 25 original series within its first year.

Disney shares features with Netflix, such as the ability to create multiple profiles on an account and suggestions based on various algorithms. The service will be $6.99 monthly or $69.99 annually. Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that Disney is working on offering packages that include Disney+, ESPN+ (home of the UFC), and Hulu (which now has live TV). Unlike WB’s DCU service, Disney+ will stream from Roku and Playstation 4 day of launch.

At such a low price point, Netflix and Amazon are sure to feel threatened. Unfortunately, November isn’t a worldwide rollout. This is likely due to international licensing agreements — like how Netflix carries Young Justice and Star Trek: Discovery overseas.

What I’m most excited about is that Disney appears to be all in on this at such a low price point. DC and CBS just launched two services without comparable offerings at $7.99 and $6.99 respectively. It will be interesting to see how the streaming landscape changes over the next few years.