Disney Plus was trending on Twitter on Friday with over 118k tweets during their D23 Expo. Netflix was not. With a slew of major announcements, Disney is determined to keep the streaming giant sweating.
Disney Comes out Swinging
Disney pulled out the big guns this Friday. Actor Ewan McGregor took the stage to confirm he will star as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new Disney Plus series. The media conglomerate also released the trailer for the highly-anticipated new Stars Wars series “The Mandalorian.”
Bounty hunting is a complicated profession. The Mandalorian, an original Star Wars series, starts streaming November 12, only on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/USXvCGyZbN
— The Mandalorian (@themandalorian) August 24, 2019
. @mcgregor_ewan takes the stage to confirm he is returning to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new #DisneyPlus series. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/Hh8ulI6Fsf
— IMDb (@IMDb) August 24, 2019
Disney has one major one asset that Netflix does not, in-house blockbuster power. With the entire Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar catalogs in their repertoire, Disney Plus could siphon off huge pools of the Netflix population. Since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox last year, they now own the five most popular movies of all-time.
Meanwhile, Netflix has been paying hundreds of millions of dollars to create afterthought content like the movie “Triple Frontier” and series “Marco Polo.”
At least Netflix has the edge in quantity, right? Not so fast. Disney confirmed their streaming service launch will include over 500 feature films and 7,500 show episodes. While it doesn’t compare to the roughly 5,500 total titles in the Netflix library, Disney has made it clear they don’t care.
The Battle for Quality
According to USA Today, Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services, said,
“We’re quality over content. It’s all about our brands.”
Netflix appears to be taking a page out of Disney’s book. According to Bloomberg, Netflix is starting to focus on quality over quantity.
Netflix does have staples like “Stranger Things,” “Narcos,” and “Orange Is the New Black” to prop them up. Their comic book spinoffs like “Luke Cage” and “Daredevil,” have been some of their biggest successes. Unfortunately, that other company does the comic book thing a little better.
The Biggest Brands will Win
If Netflix wants to compete, they need to copy the mass media company again and milk their biggest brands. On top of the two previously mentioned Star Wars spin-offs, Walt’s company has at least two more in development. The seventh season of “Clone Wars” is slated for release in February.
Just announced at #D23Expo, the next season of The Clone Wars will premiere in February on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/Wuh08gVZaG
— Star Wars (@starwars) August 24, 2019
Diego Luna will return to play Cassian Andor in an untitled series for the streaming service. We haven’t even gotten to Marvel. Disney plans to roll out series for “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Hawkeye,” “Loki,” and more. And of course, they have “Avengers: Endgame.” Disney plans to release the highest-grossing movie of all time in December.
Diego Luna will reprise the role of Cassian Andor in a new Star Wars live-action series for Disney+. https://t.co/3eTfkxLEai pic.twitter.com/k7ZYgyAQTf
— Star Wars (@starwars) November 8, 2018
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