Disney to remove Willow, Y: The Last Man, and original movies from Disney Plus and Hulu to save cash

Disney is preparing to remove more than 50 series and specials from Disney Plus and Hulu starting next week, according to a Deadline report published Thursday. Disney announced its intentions to remove content last week during an earnings call. Titles soon to be removed from Disney Plus and Hulu include Willow, Y: The last man, Diary of a Future President, The mysterious Benedictus society, Little demon, star girl.

On the earnings call, Christine McCarthy, Disney’s CFO, said the removal of the series and movies was intended to “align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation.” and that the company would expect to take “an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion.” The move mirrors the decisions made by Warner Bros. Discovery, which removed content from HBO Max last year for financial reasons, albeit with some key differences: There’s no news yet whether any of the exclusive streaming titles being removed from their respective services will be made available to buy , rent or stream on other services. Creators behind the shows and movies are equally in the dark.

“Devastated that movie I poured my [heart emoji] & soul into leaving @DisneyPlus,” Stargirl writer-director Julia Hart tweeted in the wake of the news.

“Well you work on something for years, pour your heart and soul into it, just like hundreds of other artists,” he tweeted Y: The last man showrunner Eliza Clark. “You make it through a global pandemic, far from home. Then it gets canceled before it’s even had a chance to air. Then it’s gone…”

In addition to announcing that Disney would soon remove content from streaming platforms, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that the company plans to make Hulu content available on Disney Plus by the end of the year, with a similar “one-app experience” approach. to Warner Bros. Discovery’s move to collapse the Discovery Plus streaming library into HBO Max and rename the latter to “Max.” Iger also announced that Disney plans to increase the price at the ad-free level of Disney Plus in an effort “to better reflect the value of our content offerings.” This follows a message a loss of 4 million subscribers for Disney Plus in the past three months.

Disney’s decision comes amid the Writers Guild of America’s contract negotiations and subsequent strike. One of the main points on the table is remnant payments to streaming content writers. While it may not be entirely strike related, the sudden decision to remove shows, movies and specials from streaming services in order to claim a tax write-off comes at a pivotal time for the entertainment industry.

Thanks to Varietyhere’s a list of titles that are expected to leave Disney Plus and Hulu starting May 26:

Disney Plus

• America the fair
• Between the stars
• Artemis poultry
• Be our chef
• Better Nate than ever
• The big fib
• Great shot
• Black Beauty
• Piece by piece cheaper (2022)
• Clouds
• Diary of a Future President
• Disney’s fairytale weddings
• Earth to Ned
• Encore!
• Foodtastic
• Harmonious Live!
• Howard
• It’s a dog’s life with Bill Farmer
• Just over
• Magic camp
• Making willow
• The mighty ducks
• Marvel’s Hero Project
• Marvel’s MPower
• More than robots
• The mysterious Benedictus society
• The one and only Ivan
• Owner of the room
• Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays
• Choose from the litter
• The princess
• The real right things
• Rogue journey
• Rosaline
• Shop class
• A Spark story
• Star Girl (2020)
• Stuntman
• Supernatural
• Timmy failed
• Turner & Hooch
• Strange but true!
• Willow
• Wolfgang
• The world according to Jeff Goldblum

Hulu

• Best in dough
• Best in snow
• Darby and the dead
• Doll face
• Everything is garbage
• Little devil
• Love in times of Corona
• maggie
• pistol
• The premise
• The quest
• Y: The last man