Disney has jumped into the streaming world with its own dedicated streaming service to counter rivals like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix — Disney+, which launched November 12th, 2019. The Disney+ platform is home to a tremendous swath of Disney’s animated and live-action films and shows dating back decades, along with original content for subscribers, including new Star Wars series like The Mandalorian and upcoming Marvel series like WandaVision. There’s also High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (that is a real name of a real thing), and the live-action remake of the The Lady and the Tramp.
Here’s everything you need to know about the streaming service — from the initial connection woes, what’s available on it, and how to stream it to whether you can get it for free. We’re also answering all of your questions like why certain titles aren’t available on Disney+ and what this means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Follow along for updates on Disney+ exclusive series and news about changes to the platform.
Disney+ /
$6.99 per month or $69.99 if you pay annually
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Feb 7, 2023
Disney removes Simpsons episode in Hong Kong that references Chinese labor camps
A fairly recent episode of The Simpsons that contains a reference to China’s use of forced labor camps has vanished from the Disney Plus streaming service in Hong Kong. First spotted by the Financial Times and later confirmed by Axios, the episode titled “One Angry Lisa” is not available to stream on Disney Plus, even though the rest of The Simpsons’ 34th season is. The episode contains a line critical of the country — “Behold the wonders of China: Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.”
Read Article >Though it is a punchline in The Simpsons, China has been repeatedly criticized by external governments and human rights organizations for allegedly detaining millions of its native Uyghur population and other Muslim minorities in so-called “reeducation centers” in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Those imprisoned in these camps are reportedly subjected to torture such as waterboarding and sexual abuse as part of the Chinese government’s indoctrination programs and are exploited for cheap labor. China has continually denied these allegations.
Jan 17, 2023
Here's the full trailer for season three of The Mandalorian.Pedro Pascal already had one major premiere over the weekend as The Last of Us started airing on HBO / HBO Max.
Now Disney Plus has released a full trailer (following an earlier teaser full of some familiar faces) for the next season of The Mandalorian. Season three will debut March 1st.
Dec 2, 2019
You can get $10 off a year of Disney+ today
Disney entered the streaming market this year with the launch of its own streaming service, Disney+, home to Disney series and movies old and new. It’s proven to be a wildly popular competitor to Netflix and Hulu, with over 10 million people signing up on the day it launched.
Read Article >If you haven’t subscribed to it yet (and the free year of Disney+ for Verizon customers doesn’t apply to you), this Black Friday deal will save you some money. For a limited time, you can get $10 off of a year’s subscription to Disney+. That brings the annual subscription price down to $59.99 from $69.99. The deal is only valid in the United States and Puerto Rico, and does not include a free trial. After the year runs out, you’ll be charged $69.99 unless you deactivate the subscription.
Nov 14, 2019
How to get the Disney+ bundle with ad-free Hulu and ESPN+
The new Disney+ service is just $6.99 per month, but an even more appealing deal in the eyes of some people is the $12.99 bundle that combines Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ on one bill.
Read Article >Unfortunately, the version of Hulu that comes with that bundle is the regular one with ads. But there’s a way around this for people who want to pay more for the ad-free tier of Hulu (or who might already be subscribed to it). Hulu goes over the process here, and it was also reported on by Lifehacker.
Nov 12, 2019
George Lucas changed Han Solo’s scene with Greedo in Star Wars: A New Hope, Disney confirmed
Disney+ arrived with seven chapters of the Skywalker saga, but people have started to notice something strange about the first Star Wars film, A New Hope: it has an entirely different edit than the ones fans have seen before.
Read Article >The change was “made by George made prior to the Disney acquisition,” a Disney representative told The Verge. The new edit, which was first spotted by the Star Wars Visual Comparisons Twitter account, features an entirely new insert of the Rodian bounty hunter Greedo saying something while talking to Han Solo in the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine.
Nov 12, 2019
The Simpsons’ aspect ratio is messed up on Disney+
All 30 seasons of The Simpsons are available for fans to stream on Disney+ starting today, but there’s one glaring problem: the aspect ratio is off.
Read Article >Every episode of The Simpsons is currently streaming in a 16:9 ratio, meaning it looks stretched and shots are cropped to fit a widescreen format. There isn’t an option to change the aspect ratio, either. This ultimately means there’s a plethora of gags from the first 20 Simpsons seasons that don’t land because the cropping prevents the joke from being fulfilled.
Nov 12, 2019
Disney will tolerate password sharing on Disney+ — for now
Do you pay for your own Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or HBO Now accounts? A simple truth of today is that many of us share access to streaming services. Maybe you split the cost with friends or family. Maybe you’ve managed to cling to an ex’s streaming account (and they’ve been nice enough not to change the password). Disney is aware that this is the reality of consumer behavior as it launches Disney+, and the company acknowledges that its new service is in for the same treatment.
Read Article >With generous usage guidelines (four concurrent streams, up to seven user profiles per account, etc.), Disney+ is inevitably going to be shared by people. The service is meant to be enjoyed by everyone in your household, but there will also likely be people who share their passwords with friends across the country.
Nov 12, 2019
How to get a year of free Disney+ from Verizon
Disney+ promises to be popular among viewers, especially children, Star Wars fans, animation enthusiasts, and Marvel lovers. The streaming service went live today, and while the normal cost is $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year (there are several bundled services also available), a subset of Verizon customers can save quite a bit of money by getting a year of Disney+ for free.
Read Article >All you have to do is go to Verizon’s Disney+ page (you can’t get it through the Disney+ site) and sign up. However, as you can imagine, there are some requirements if you want to take advantage of this offer.
Nov 12, 2019
Disney+ doesn’t have to sell anyone on streaming
Compared to competitors like Netflix or Apple TV Plus, Disney+ is uniquely situated. It’s not a new space where viewers can watch a wide, varied selection; rather, it’s a play to sell customers what they already know.
Read Article >Disney’s lineup of originals isn’t as important as the hundreds of movies and thousands of TV show episodes it will launch with on day one. Almost every chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be available to stream. The same goes for the Skywalker saga and the entire Pixar library. Subscribers can binge-watch every High School Musical movie and revisit classic shows like That’s So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Hannah Montana.
Nov 12, 2019
The Mandalorian’s first episode shows that Star Wars can work on the small screen
Star Wars has always been heavily inspired by classic Westerns. But that’s never been quite as overt as it is in The Mandalorian, the first live-action TV series for the franchise and the marquee title for the brand-new Disney+ streaming service. Outside of a few animated TV shows aimed at kids, Star Wars has largely been a brand that has thrived on the big screen — the original films practically invented the modern concept of a summer blockbuster — but can it make the jump to a prestige TV drama?
Read Article >With just a single episode out, it’s hard to say whether Disney has succeeded, but one thing is clear: The Mandalorian is off to a great start, and it’s perhaps the best proof yet that the Star Wars universe can lead to compelling content that isn’t packaged for kids or reliant on Luke Skywalker showing up.
Nov 12, 2019
Disney+ experiencing ‘unable to connect’ errors on launch day
The launch day crunch is causing some problems for Disney+. After going live in the wee hours of the morning, Disney’s streaming service is showing “unable to connect” errors as customers on the east coast begin signing up for their free trial and exploring the Disney+ catalog.
Read Article >Not everyone seems to be running into the errors, but reports are spiking across Twitter and other social media this morning. Fittingly, the error message features Ralph and Vanellope of Wreck-It Ralph and Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet. Problems range across platforms including mobile devies, Roku, and Xbox One.
Nov 12, 2019
Here’s what time every episode of The Mandalorian and other Disney+ shows go live
Disney+ is here, and the first episode of Lucasfilm’s highly anticipated live-action series, The Mandalorian, is live. Once you’ve finished devouring The Mandalorian’s pilot, you might be wondering when the next episode will arrive, and at what time. That goes for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, too. The answer is midnight every Friday from here on out.
Read Article >Disney says they’ll be added to Disney+ on a weekly basis, starting on Friday, November 15th. Those new episodes will also be added at 12:00am ET, so you might have to put in some late nights if you want to watch The Mandalorian immediately. Or you can just watch the new episodes over the weekend, which is probably Disney’s actual logic here.
Nov 12, 2019
How to stream Disney+
The highly anticipated Disney+ streaming service, which will likely prove as essential as Netflix to many consumers, is now available. Disney+ combines content from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic into a single streaming app. You can dig into Disney+’s vault of animated classics, superhero blockbusters, TV shows, and new originals, like The Mandalorian. There’s a free seven-day trial for new customers, so you’ll have a week to make the decision of whether you want to add yet another subscription to your life.
Read Article >Here’s everything you should know about getting started with Disney+.
Nov 12, 2019
Disney+ has the first ever 4K HDR versions of the original Star Wars trilogy
Disney+ is going live today, and it includes an unexpected perk: the first 4K versions of several Star Wars movies, including the original trilogy. Episodes I: The Phantom Menace through VII: The Force Awakens are all available to watch with Dolby Vision HDR and Atmos support. There’s also a 4K HDR version of Rogue One, though Solo and Episode VIII: The Last Jedi aren’t yet on the new service.
Read Article >“We have actually been spending a lot of time getting the movies and TV shows as appropriate, upgraded and ready to be viewed in that format,” Disney streaming services head Michael Paull said at a media event attended by The Verge in New York City last week. “We are working very very hard at making as much a selection as possible of our programming [available] in 4K UHD.”
Nov 12, 2019
Disney won’t share ratings for original Disney+ titles despite industry push to do so
Disney won’t publicly share viewership numbers for its original series and movies, despite fellow streaming giants like Netflix being more transparent in the wake of industry-wide criticism.
Read Article >The content and development teams overseeing Disney+ have spoken about how they’re approaching sharing metrics in internal conversations, according to multiple Disney executives. The company currently doesn’t see a reason to share metrics with the public, although creative talent who partner with Disney on Disney+ titles will receive some form of ratings.
Nov 12, 2019
How important will Marvel’s Disney+ shows be in understanding the Cinematic Universe?
Marvel Studios Kevin Feige kicked off a chorus of complaints last week after declaring that in order to understand everything happening in future Marvel movies, people would have to subscribe to Disney+.
Read Article >Disney executives Ricky Strauss and Agnes Chu, both directly involved in overseeing Disney+ content, further explained Feige and Marvel’s approach to connecting with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. WandaVision, a series that stars Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany as Vision, is the go-to example. Both that series and Loki, the Disney+ Marvel series that focuses on Tom Hiddleston’s popular character, will play into the second Doctor Strange movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Nov 12, 2019
Disney doesn’t have plans to bring live-action Spider-Man movies to Disney+
Disney is working to bring the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe collection — 23 titles to date — to its Disney+ streaming service, but Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home are unlikely to be included.
Read Article >Ricky Strauss, Disney’s head of content and marketing for Disney+, told The Verge at a recent media day in New York there aren’t any plans to bring the two movies over to Disney+. Although both Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, were co-produced by Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures, the rights belong to Sony. That makes it infinitely more difficult for Disney to bring the movies over to its own streaming service.
Nov 12, 2019
Disney+ launch lineup: every movie and TV show available to stream in the US on day one
Disney’s foray into an online streaming subscription service, Disney+, is now live. We’ve updated this post with the company’s full launch lineup — including some of the missing Marvel movies and animated series, along with the first three Home Alone movies.
Read Article >The company initially used a massive Twitter thread — more than 300 tweets in total — to make the announcement. The thread included obvious titles like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Frozen, alongside older titles like Three Men and a Baby, Three Musketeers, Swiss Family Robinson, and Fantasia. Disney also used the thread to name some popular TV series that will be available on day one, including Lizzie McGuire, Recess, and the animated X-Men series from 2002.
Nov 11, 2019
Disney+ gets last-minute update, will have most Marvel movies at launch
Disney has apparently worked out multiple deals to get much of the MCU back at launch.
Read Article >A new Twitter thread from the official Disney+ account lists a number of new Marvel titles that will be available to stream at launch. It explains why there are now several more Marvel titles available on Disney+ than what the company announced less than one month ago. On October 14th, Disney announced that Iron Man, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and Captain Marvel would be available on Disney+ in the US at launch.
Nov 8, 2019
Disney+ is launching in the UK on March 31st 2020
Disney+ will be available in the UK on March 31st, a little over four months after it launches in the US on November 12th, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced on an earnings call yesterday. Along with the UK, the service is also set to launch in other major European markets — including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain — on the same date.
Read Article >Disney+ is already available in the Netherlands, where it launched as a free pilot trial back in September. But its wider March 2020 launch will be the first time many viewers in Europe are able to legally watch Disney+ exclusives including The Mandalorian and The Lady and the Tramp live-action remake.
Nov 7, 2019
Disney reaches deal with Amazon to put Disney+ on Fire TV devices
Disney+ will be available on Amazon Fire TV devices for the November 12th launch after all, according to The Wall Street Journal, following a WSJ report last month that said the streaming service may not be available on Amazon products due to a disagreement over advertising.
Read Article >CEO Bob Iger announced the news on Disney’s fourth quarter earnings call, alongside news that Disney+ will also be available on LG and Samsung smart TVs. “We’re pleased to announce partnerships with Amazon Fire [TV], LG, and Samsung devices.”
Nov 7, 2019
The Lion King helped boost Disney’s earnings as company prepares for Disney+ launch
Disney’s final earnings call before the launch of its anticipated streaming service, Disney+, reminded investors that Disney is in a strong place, beating revenue estimates.
Read Article >The company reported a quarterly revenue of $19.1 billion. It was estimated to pull in $19.04 billion. The company posted $2.32 billion in profit during this same quarter last year on $14.3 billion in revenue. Still, Disney’s numbers are almost up across the board, including a huge boost from its studios — specifically The Lion King — and theme park divisions. Disney’s earnings report states the increase in “theatrical distribution results was due to the performance of The Lion King, Toy Story 4 and Aladdin in the current quarter compared to Incredibles 2 and Ant-Man And The Wasp in the prior-year quarter.” In fact, studios revenues for the quarter “increased 52 percent to $3.3 billion,” according to the report.
Nov 6, 2019
Avengers: Endgame is officially a launch title on Disney+
Avengers: Endgame will land on Disney+ one month earlier than expected, moving from December 11th to November 12th in the United States. The date change makes Endgame a launch title.
Read Article >During a call with investors in May, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Endgame would be available on Disney+ on December 11th. Iger noted that Endgame’s placement would come “just a month after we launch the service.” That date was later reiterated by Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige at D23, Disney’s biennial fan convention, in August.
Nov 5, 2019
Disney+ will run Starz ad as part of a deal to get its own movies back at launch
Read Article >Disney has agreed to run the ad in exchange for streaming rights to some of its own films, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which had previously been licensed out to Starz, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. The ad will appear on the page after a customer has finished signing up for Disney+ and ESPN+, based on photos seen by The Verge. The ad will appear on Disney+’s Android app and in browsers, the person said.
Oct 29, 2019
New Mandalorian trailer promises Star Wars beasts, fighting spaceships, and bounty hunters
A new trailer for Disney’s first ever live-action Star Wars show, The Mandalorian, has arrived, just a couple of weeks ahead of Disney+’s highly anticipated launch.
Read Article >The new trailer includes a few interesting shots, including putting a spotlight on some of the space beasts that will come across the Mandalorian’s path. There are also new spaceship fights, and a promise that fans will get a deeper look at bounty hunting — a “difficult profession.” The time for peace has come to an end.