Disney’s Netflix Killer Isn’t Coming Until “Late” 2019, But the Lineup Sounds Amazing

The major Hollywood news Tuesday afternoon was that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are making a Star Wars franchise for Disney-owned Lucasfilm, but Disney CEO Bob Iger made the subtler point during an earnings call with media analysts after the announcement that those movies won’t stream on STARZ or Netflix.

The Star Wars movies — like the previously announced Rian Johnson Star Wars movies, two planned Star Wars TV properties, and likely the entire Star Wars catalog at some point down the road — will stream exclusively on the new streaming service that Disney plans to launch in late 2019.

“We’ve actually been talking to them for a long time,” Iger said of Benioff and Weiss. “To my knowledge, they didn’t express interest in creating a series, but they have an idea about a number of films. At some later date, I’m sure we’ll disclose to all of you just what those are. They’re focused on a point in time in the Star Wars mythology and taking it from there.”

Photo: Getty Images

Iger said Tuesday that the new service, which Disney announced in late 2017, will launch in “late 2019.” That will give Disney time to ramp up a lengthy list of original films and TV series from the Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Disney nameplates. That will include new shows in the Monsters, Inc.High School Musical and Star Wars franchises that won’t be available on any of Disney’s cable channels or on competing streaming services.

“We are developing not just one, but a few Star Wars series, specifically for the Disney direct-to-consumer app,” Iger said during the conference call. “We’re close to being able to reveal at least one of the entities that’s developing that for us.”

Iger also emphasized that Disney’s output deal with Netflix for Black Panther, Incredibles 2 and other films released through the end of 2018 doesn’t last forever. Netflix, Iger said, “will have rights to the films that were made in 2016, 2017, 2018 for quite a long period of time thereafter with a window for us to use them ourselves that falls within the period of time or the tail that they’ll have those rights.”

Disney also announced that its new ESPN Plus streaming service that’s set to launch in the next few months will cost $4.99 a month and will be integrated into completely overhauled ESPN app that Disney plans to launch across the major mobile and TV platforms. ESPN Plus will include some MLB, MLS and NHL games, but ESPN’s flagship properties like Monday Night Football and major-conference basketball will remain on ESPN.

Iger said little during the earnings call about Disney’s announced acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets beyond the fact that the companies are working through the regulatory process. “As much as we’d love to be at a point where we’d gain regulatory approval and we’re integrating the companies,” Iger said, “we know from the absolute beginning just how patient we have to be in this regard.”

Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider, is a contributing writer for Playboy, and hosts a weekly podcast about new digital content called Consumed with Scott Porch. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.