Yahoo Movies Disney+ steps up its fight in the streaming war with ambitious summer slate
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Disney has ramped up the streaming wars by unveiling a star studded schedule of spring and summer releases.
New Marvel blockbuster series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier heads up the list alongside a new Star Wars spin off and modern reboots for some classic family films.
The Disney+ slate will boost its challenge to Netflix and Amazon Prime, while also fending off newer US services like Warner’s HBO Max and the just announced Paramount Plus – although neither of those have confirmed a UK launch as yet.
Here’s the highlights from Mickey’s line up for spring and summer:
The Falcon and Winter Soldier (19 March)
Disney will be looking to follow on from the game changing success of WandaVision with their next Marvel instalment, focusing on Captain America's former sidekicks Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, played by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.
Watch a teaser for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
Set after Wilson inherited the Captain America shield from his retired best pal at the end of Avengers Endgame, he and Barnes encounter various enemies and allies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Civil War villain Zemo, played by Daniel Bruhl, returns, as does Emily Vancamp’s former Shield agent Sharon Carter.
Loki (11 June)
Also following on from the events of Avengers Endgame is the new series about Tom Hiddleston’s god of mischief. In that movie, the Asgardian villain escaped with the Tesseract space stone during an Avengers operation, and this series follows his adventures across space and time.
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Hiddleston is joined by Owen Wilson making his MCU debut, while the cast also includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant.
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (26 March)
Cobra Kai with pucks? The 90s family film franchise starred Emilio Estevez as a reluctant ice hockey coach Gordon Bombay who took a scrappy Minnesota kids’ team all the way to the top. These days the tables have turned and the Ducks have become the established powerhouse team.
When a 12 year old player is kicked off the team, his mum Alex, played by Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham, sets up a new outsiders’ club, and drafts in Mighty Ducks legend Bombay (Estevez) to help.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (4 May)
Following the success of The Mandalorian, Disney+ is returning to a galaxy far, far away for a new animated spin off from Lucasfilm – launching on Star Wars day.
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The Bad Batch is a spin off from long running series The Clone Wars, and will focus on events after the rise of the Empire, as this special group of Clones, led by Clone Wars regular Captain Rex try to find their way in a changing universe.
Monsters at Work (2 July)
Pixar is getting in on the streamed series fun with a new animated show set immediately after the events of Monsters, Inc., where Billy Crystal’s Mike and John Goodman’s Sully discovered that children’s laugher could power the Monster world much more powerfully than their screams. Ben Feldman stars as Tylor Tuskmon, a newly arrived scarer struggling to cope with the new world, while Crystal and Goodman return as the heroic beasts.
Turner & Hooch (16 July)
In the original 1989 film, Tom Hanks starred as a straight-laced small town cop whose life was turned upside down by manky mutt Hooch. For the reboot, Josh Peck plays his US Marshal son, Scott Turner Jr, who has similar problems when he has to take care of another sobering mess of a French mastiff.
The full Disney+ spring and summer schedule:
19 March – The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
26 March – The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
16 April – Big Shot
4 May – Star Wars: The Bad Batch
14 May – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 2
11 June – Loki
11 June – Zenimation Season 2
25 June – Mysterious Benedict Society
2 July – Monsters at Work
16 July – Turner & Hooch
23 July – Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life
