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Disney is planning Loki and Scarlet Witch TV shows for its streaming service

Disney is planning Loki and Scarlet Witch TV shows for its streaming service

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It’s the latest attempt to compete with Netflix’s original content

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Courtesy of Marvel Studios

The idea of shelling out money for yet another subscription service just got a lot more attractive with the announcement that two new exclusive Marvel TV shows are being developed for Disney’s still unnamed streaming service. Disney is reportedly planning a number of limited series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe that center on characters who don’t have their own movies.

According to an unsourced Variety report, the first two likely contenders for standalone shows include Loki the trickster and Scarlet Witch, roles that will reportedly be filled by their movie actors, Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen, respectively. The limited series will apparently be around six to eight episodes each, which is still enough to give these characters more story space than MCU characters that have only had a single film. It seems likely that Marvel’s biggest characters won’t be getting the same treatment. The streaming service aims to put a spotlight on midtier personalities or characters that the movies haven’t explored at length.

Disney’s streaming service has been projected to cost subscribers “substantially” less than Netflix’s monthly fee, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger. It will include a number of original productions, such as new Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes, shows based on the Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. and High School Musical, and existing Disney movies that will soon be pulled from other streaming platforms. These efforts are expected to cost Disney a lot of money, but the heavy investment is meant to help the company take on heavyweights like Netflix, which is reportedly spending $8 billion on original content in 2018.