Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
It’s for real this time. All of The Clone Wars – the movie, the first five seasons, and “The Lost Missions,” aka S6, is departing Netflix on April 7.
The series is all but certain to return to streaming when Disney+ launches – and though we still haven’t heard if the new episodes will be up there at launch, that seems like a pretty safe bet as well. Disney+ is expected to launch later this year.
As for the gap, well, that’s why they still make Blu-rays: Nothing on streaming is certain forever.
Today is the day that Solo debuts on Netflix. It joins The Last Jedi and Rogue One on the streaming service – though the later will be departing on the 18th. (If you’re not in the U.S., your terms – and the available films – may vary.)
Solo will be the last Star Wars film on Netflix under Disney’s current agreement – Episode IX will be the first to debut on Disney+.
Solo: A Star Wars Story and all four Indiana Jones movies are among the new offerings coming to Netflix in January.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull drop on the first; Solo appears on January 9.
Meanwhile, Rogue One is leaving on January 18. It’s next stop is with the rest of the saga on TBS/TNT. It was, notably, the first Star Wars movie on (American) Netflix. Solo will be the last; Episode IX will debut on Disney+.
In Variety’s cover story on Hollywood, Netflix and the other direct-to-consumer platforms being developed, Disney CEO Bob Iger reveals that the company’s streaming service will be called “Disney Play.” THR has since gone back and changed the quote to be “a Disney play” – so it’s likely not the service’s name after all. Back to Disneyflix!
Iger says the service is the company’s “biggest priority” for 2019, and the article explores the costs, stakes and other business concerns for not just Disney, but all the other companies in the game.
One estimate says Disney would need 40 million subscribers to break even if they went with a price of $6 a month. (No pricing has been officially announced yet, but Iger has previously said that the Disney service will be cheaper than Netflix, which runs $8-14.)
The Disney service, expected to launch in 2019, will be home to a new chunk of The Clone Wars and at least one brand-new live-action Star Wars show from Jon Favreau. Older episodes of TCW (currently on Netflix) are probably a good bet, and I have no doubt that Rebels (which has never streamed outside the Disney ecosystem) and the upcoming Resistance will be found there as well. One thing the new service won’t have is the older Star Wars films – and it might only get new ones like Episode IX for a limited time (ala Rogue One and The Last Jedi on Netflix), as there’s a broadcast deal with Turner that runs through 2024.
The New York Times takes a look at Disney’s upcoming streaming service and executive Ricky Strauss, who has oversight of the programming. But for our immediate purposes, there is one new nugget here: Jon Favreau’s live-action Star Wars series has a rough budget of “$100 million for 10 episodes.”
“‘Star Wars’ is a big world, and Disney’s new streaming service affords a wonderful opportunity to tell stories that stretch out over multiple chapters,” Mr. Favreau said in an email. He added of Mr. Strauss: “Marketing is about telling a story, and his background in that area allows us to collaborate and create new content.”
Information on the Favreau series is thin on the ground, but we do know he’s writing the whole season, it will feature brand-new characters, and it’s set three years after Return of the Jedi.
$10M an episode is roughly equivalent to the episode budget for past episodes of Game of Thrones. The final season of that show is now up to $15M an episode, per Variety last year. High-end TV episodes generally come out to about $5 million-$7 million an hour. The $10M price tag also puts this in the range of The Crown, which is one of Netflix’s most expensive shows.
We also get a timeline for when Disney’s new movies will stop rolling out to Netflix: March’s Captain Marvel will be the first to go to the new service, which means we can expect Solo on Netflix.
The eighth episode has arrived on Netflix (at least in the U.S.) for anyone who wants yet another way to watch the film. It’s part of Disney’s deal with the streaming service: Rogue One was the first Star Wars film on the service under the deal. (Again, domestically; The Force Awakens did appear in some countries, while it aired on Starz here.)
The Last Jedi will arrive on (U.S.) Netflix on June 26, Buzzfeed reports today. Netflix has first-run rights to all Disney movies through at least the next year or so; 2016’s Rogue One was the first Star Wars film to hit the American version of the service last July.
Disney is expected to launch their own streaming service sometime in 2019. It’s still unclear how that may impact 2018 films like Solo.
After a brief period where it was unclear, it looks like Star Wars and Marvel will be going to Disney’s streaming service after all. Presumably this won’t apply to Marvel’s series that were co-produced with Netflix before Disney decided to create their own service, but future projects will likely debut there.
Disney’s streaming service is expected to debut in 2019. New releases through 2018 (which include The Last Jedi and the upcoming Han Solo standalone) will probably still debut on Netflix due to Disney’s shortened contract.
Disney is ending their deal with Netflix – the same one that put Rogue One on the streaming service last month – in order to launch their own streaming service in 2019.
The deal will end with the 2019 releases, so December 2017’s The Last Jedi and 2018’s Han Solo spinoff may still appear on Netflix. Still, this means our long wait for the rest of Star Wars is probably in vain. (And yes, those of you not in the U.S. may see Star Wars leave your Netflixes as well – assuming the Disney service goes international.)
I find this all a bit perplexing (except for the ESPN bit, because sports are their own thing.) Hardcore Disney fans may pay for a Disney-only streaming service, but everyone else? As a consumer, I’d rather not. \
UPDATE: Iger told reporters that the status of Marvel and Star Wars in this deal hasn’t been determined yet, and they may still license out both franchises. Marvel notably already has produced several series with Netflix, cumulating in the upcoming The Defenders. Those shows will stay on Netflix, Iger told CNBC.
As of yesterday, Rogue One became the first Star Wars movie on (American) Netflix. Don’t stream it all at once, kids.
