During Disney’s Q1 2018 earnings announcement earlier this week, CEO Bob Iger talked at length about the new ESPN Plus service coming later this year while offering little in the way of new info about the Disney-branded service to follow in 2019 — except to say that there may be multiple Star Wars shows in the works instead of one. Now, as Deadline reports, the company is revealing a bit more about the service and what fans can expect from its content.
As expected, this particular service will be absent of any R-rated content. Instead, that product will go to Hulu, which Disney owns a portion of and will take a controlling stake in should the 21st Century Fox deal close. Additionally, Disney plans to leave the existing Marvel television properties where they are.
After launching in fall of 2019, the service plans to release four to five original movies and have five original TV series in addition to library content. Like with other streaming services, these series are expected to have 10 episode seasons, with budgets mostly in the $25 million to $35 million per season budget range with a few exceptions going higher.
Some of the projects in the works for the service according to Deadline include Don Quixote (scripted by Billy Ray), Lady in the Tramp, The Paper Magician, Stargirl (directed by Julia Hart), and Togo (directed by Ericson Core). Additionally, Magic Camp and Noelle (which stars Anna Kendrick, Bill Hader, and Shirley MacLaine) are expected to end up on the streaming service. Other films in development include 3 Men and a Baby, Sword and the Stone, and Timmy Failure. Finally, as has been previously mentioned, a High School Musical show and Monsters Inc. series are in the works as well as Marvel and Star Wars live-action shows.