Disney To Move Marvel, ‘Star Wars’ Films From Netflix To Its Own Streaming Service

Last month, Disney announced that it was yanking new live-action and animated films — as well as those by Pixar — from Netflix in 2019 in order to launch its own self-branded streaming service.

At the time, Netflix said it was in “active discussions” with Disney about keeping future releases from its Marvel and Lucasfilm properties on the platform beyond 2019 — though it looks like those talks did not bear fruit. Disney CEO Bob Iger said that all Marvel and Star Wars releases will live on the forthcoming Disney-branded streaming app, which is slated to launch in late 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Speaking at a media conference in Los Angeles today, Iger also shared that Disney

will produce roughly four original films and five TV shows for exclusive release on the ad-free service — the majority of which will be live-action projects. The subscription platform will also serve as a hub for roughly 500 existing Disney movies and 7,000 TV episodes.

At the same time that it announced the launch of a proprietary Disney platform last month, Disney said that an ESPN-branded streaming app was also in the works — which Iger confirmed is slated to bow next spring. That service will house 10,000 live sports events in its first year, including those from Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, professional tennis, and a whole host of college sports.

Netflix’s stock didn’t seem to be affected by Iger’s announcement today — though shares in Disney were down after Iger said that earnings per share for this year will be comparable to those one year ago.