The Disney+ Purge Is Beginning - Willow Will Be Removed From The Service
Bob Iger announced a while ago that as part of Disney’s new cost saving program that not only would the company fire thousands of people, cut content production budget and space out shows much more, and, as revealed yesterday, surprisingly close down the Star Wars hotel after mere 18 months, it was also announced that content would be removed from Disney+ to save costs. Now you may wonder how a company can save costs by removing content that is already produced. Simple answer: residuals, i.e the people involved with the show do get some money as long as a series is available on streaming. Back in the day residuals were paid to creatives when a movie or show was broadcast on tv, even repeats, with streaming it is of course somewhat different. Anyway, so what original Disney+ series will get removed from the service? Click through for the full story!
Willow was celebrated online for its queer representation
Among the content removed are things you probably never heard of like The Mysterious Benedict Society or Big Shot. But then you also find the Jeff Goldblum series and – drumroll – Willow.
Yes Willow, which was a massive flop for Lucasfilm, will be removed from Disney+ on May 26th. So much for “yeah, Disney is giving all the actors some time so they can pursue some other projects and season 2 is only delayed” statement by Kasdan Jr who clearly took a few cues from Rian Johnson who wants to make people believe his Star Wars trilogy will still happen… someday. What an embarrassment for Lucasfilm that Willow, a brand new series which only debuted last November, gets removed from the service just six months later.
Also, remember the following statement by Iger: that most Disney+ series and movies do NOT drive subscriber growth. And he believes removing certain shows will therefore have zero negative impact on subscriber numbers. And sure, when only few people watch something to begin with those few will hardly matter. Willow failed to enter the Nielsen charts even once. Numbers for that show must have been abysmal when it gets purged from Disney+ mere 6 months after its premiere. I feel sorry for all the crew members and actors whose work now gets basically erased from existence. I do not feel sorry for Kasdan Jr though who should have known better what a series based on a 1980s fantasy movie should be about and what characters it should feature.
Star Wars and Marvel fans can feel safe for now, Iger also said that Disney would not remove Star Wars or Marvel content. To which I add… “yet”.
Also, since there is no physical media for Willow it means Disney+ subscribers are now at the whim of Iger and his purge. If something gets removed you can never watch it again. Maybe owning quaint DVDs or just moderately less quaint Blu-Rays does have a few advantages. Disney would not raid your home to remove them from your shelf at least.
In other news: critical reaction to Indiana Jones 5 – The Dial of Destiny which was screened at Cannes Film Festival in France is very, very lukewarm. And according to reports the (mostly) French audience was visibly bored at times throughout the movie. And that movie needs to make about $800 million worldwide just to break even, because of its insane production budget (due to delays and reshoots, the usual for any Lucasfilm project ever since 2015) of $300+ million plus marketing.
Deadline has the full story with even more shows named in the article which will get purged!
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