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Disney Plus, the media company’s new streaming service, is expected to contain the entire back catalog of Disney movies and television shows. But not all of that content will be available at launch.
During the Walt Disney Company’s Investor Day presentation, executives made a distinction between “launch” content and “year one” content. Launch content will be available when the service launches on Nov. 12. That will include 100 movies and some 5,000 television episodes. Additional content will slowly trickle out over the next year, boosting the total catalog to 500 films and more than 7,500 TV episodes. The balance of the back catalog will get added over an indeterminate period of time.
In year one, you'll be able to rediscover more than 7,500 episodes and 500 films from our library on #DisneyPlus.
— Disney (@Disney) April 11, 2019
Release windows for individual films and TV series were scattered all throughout the roughly three-hour presentation, sprinkling top-tier franchises in with less sought after titles to flesh things out. The Pirates of the Caribbean films will be available at launch, for instance, as will The Santa Clause films. Honey I Shrunk The Kids will be there too, right alongside the National Treasure movies.
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The first two Star Wars trilogies will be available when the service launches. So too will Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But fans will have to wait up to a year before they’ll get access to Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
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Similarly, some Pixar films are available at launch, including Cars, Monsters Inc., and Ratatouille. But Incredibles 2 and Coco won’t be available until later in that first year.
A massive selection of classic television shows will be available at launch, including Duck Tales, Hannah Montana, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, High School Musical, and Lizzy McGuire. They’ll sit alongside newer offerings like The Mandalorian and The World According To Jeff Goldblum. Then, throughout year one, Disney will add a selection of additional legacy titles alongside new releases like Star Wars: Episode IX and Avengers: Endgame.
That gambit will likely keep the hype train rolling for some time, bringing in waves of new subscribers to Disney Plus over its first year.
For fans hoping to gobble up obscure titles like The Black Cauldron (read: me), they might have to wait a fair bit. The Disney Vault, it seems, is a bit harder to clean out than Bob Iger would have initially led us to believe.
