Late last week we heard news Disney Plus and Hulu would be losing some content in the near future. But, at the time, it wasn’t revealed what content might go missing or when it might happen. Now Deadline claims to know exactly what will be leaving the services — and it may all start next week.
This is all down to Disney attempting to save $3 billion during 2023. Pulling content from streaming services is designed to help that along: saving money on residuals, royalties and data storage costs. It also helps Disney earn some money by selling the rights to some other service.
According to Deadline's report a bunch of content will be pulled from Disney Plus and Hulu on May 26 — just one week from today. It’s not clear if this is everything subscribers will lose for the near future or just the first wave of an ongoing plan to continually trim the fat.
The list itself is actually rather long, which makes me suspect it could be the former. Especially as it's mostly made up of canceled TV shows, limited series, direct to streaming movies and other content that isn’t likely to convince people to subscribe.
Here’s what’s apparently being pulled.
Shows and movies leaving Disney Plus on May 26
- Big Shot
- Turner & Hooch
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
- Willow (2022)
- The Making Of Willow
- Diary of a Future President
- Just Beyond
- The World According to Jeff Goldblum
- Marvel’s Project Hero
- Marvel’s MPower
- Marvel’s Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever
- Rosaline
- Cheaper by the Dozen (2022)
- The One and Only Ivan
- Stargirl
- Artemis Fowl
- The Princess
- Encore!
- A Spark Story
- Black Beauty (2020)
- Clouds
- America the Beautiful
- Better Nate Than Ever
- Weird but True!
- Timmy Failure
- Be Our Chef
- Magic Camp
- Howard
- Earth to Ned
- Foodtastic
- Stuntman
- Disney Fairy Tale Weddings
- Wolfgang
- It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer
- The Real Right Stuff
- The Big Fib
- Rogue Trip
- More Than Robots
- Shop Class
- Pick the Litter
- Own the Room
- Among the Stars
- Harmonious Live!
- Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays
Shows and movies leaving Hulu on May 26
- Y: The Last Man
- Pistol
- Little Demon
- Maggie
- Dollface
- The Hot Zone
- The Premise
- Love in the Time of Corona
- Everything’s Trash
- Best in Snow
- Best in Dough
- Darby and the Dead
- The Quest
What this means for Disney Plus and Hulu subscribers
That is rather a long list of content, and Disney Plus certainly seems to be losing the lion’s share compared to Hulu. It’s also worth mentioning that most of this content isn’t the kind of stuff that’s likely to bring in new subscribers.
Artemis Fowl is a great example, having been released to Disney Plus during the pandemic only to be slaughtered by audiences and critics alike. In fact its critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is just 8% — with a 19% scoring from audiences.
Likewise a lot of these TV shows have already been canceled, including Turner & Hooch, The Mysterious Benedict Society and so on. Willow, which may or may not be canceled depending on who you ask, doesn’t seem to have a particularly bright future now that it’s being pulled from Disney’s library.
It’s not clear what sort of future these shows have, either. Content pulled from HBO Max eventually found its way onto free ad-supported streaming services like Freevee, Roku and Pluto TV. It makes sense Disney would sell off the streaming rights and bring in some more money on top of whatever cost-cutting measures pulling content can offer.
We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens going forward. Thankfully the best Disney Plus TV shows and the best Hulu shows will likely be sticking around for the foreseeable future. Plus, if you're looking for new shows and movies to watch this weekend, some of our picks are available to stream on Disney Plus and Hulu. So it’s not like there will be any shortage of things to watch.
