The other week Disney CEO Bob Iger stepped down from his position, appointing Bob Chapek to succeed him, though Iger will remain on at Disney until late next year during the transition to help Chapek. One of his other duties however will be righting the creative ship at Disney+ according to a new feature piece at THR.
The Disney+ streaming service launched in November and exceeded all expectations, racking up 28 million subscribers in just three months thanks to its library of classic films, the live-action “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” and the full back catalogue of “The Simpsons” episodes which has proven to be a large draw.
But since then things have stumbled a bit. Say what you will about Apple TV+, but that service is pumping out new content while Disney is struggling with a lack of original product. Its original films like “Togo” and “Lady and the Tramp” haven’t set the world on fire (even with the former scoring acclaim), and there’s an obvious lack of any major shows aimed at an audience than kids, prudes or nostalgic adults.
Disney’s plan is to release around 35 originals in its first year but outside of “Mandalorian” its various launch shows haven’t taken off and its three most high-profile shows in 2020 – Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “The Mandalorian” Season 2 and Marvel’s “WandaVision,” won’t hit until the final third of the year.
Disney+ reportedly has more than 50 scripted shows and some 50 unscripted shows in development but with several months until its next high-profile series debuts, the service is still having teething issues.
One of the big problems has been its struggle to define its identity. Disney+ greenlit then scrapped three original series – “Muppets Live Another Day,” “Book of Enchantment” and a never announced “TRON” series – because executives have an image of a “family-friendly Disney+” that seems ill-defined and is butting heads with creatives struggling to include anything beyond the tamest of constraints.
One source tells the trade the original plan was to be “on the edgy side of PG-13” but once underway, their decisions “so far have skewed more PG” which is causing confusion and has “set creators up for failure”. It also seems to have very different standards for each of its brand tiles.
Things came to a head with the “Lizzie McGuire” revival with creator and showrunner Terri Minsky departing during production over creative differences – Minsky and star Hilary Duff wanted to explore more mature storylines and move to Hulu, but Disney+ wanted a light fun show like the old one even though Duff is now playing a thirtysomething woman with a career and relationship life with work stresses and a partner whose cheating is a major plot point.
Two other shows which made it into production, “High Fidelity” and the “Love, Simon” spin-off series “Love, Victor,” were both moved to Hulu over their apparent adult thematic content such as marital tension, alcohol use and a lead character struggling with their sexuality. Yet the service also includes films such as “10 Things I Hate About You” which contain the same.
Disney is now facing the risk that those paying $7 a month could decide to cancel their subscriptions until the next must-watch original is released because original programming is what really fuels growth in these services. Disney+ is aiming to have between 60-90 million subscribers by 2024 and will need a steady slate of must see programming to reach that.
It’s expected Iger will be heavily involved in getting Disney+ content streamlined into a working and stable before he departs and, for now, he has some leeway to do that.
