Disney fans furious over major change to Disney Plus: ‘My villain origin story’

In an effort to cut costs, Disney is removing content from Disney Plus and Hulu streaming platforms.

The announcement that at least 40 titles are being pulled as early as next week has angered fans and subscribers.

Among the shows to be culled are the fantasy series Willow (a sequel to the 1988 film of the same name), Kat Dennings’ comedy series Dollface, and The Mysterious Benedict Society.

A Disney representative confirmed to Variety that at least four dozen titles will no longer be able to stream across Disney Plus and Hulu. (See below for a full list of confirmed series and movies to go.)

“What?!?!?! I haven’t even had a chance to watch Willow yet! Is there going to be a physical release or anything? This is wild and confusing for multiple reasons,” said one person.

Another added: “Can they do that? I mean, I know they are not successful shows or anything but those are Disney Plus originals. That’s wild.”

“Disney is basically destroying any legal way to watch Willow and Dollface… My villain origin story is realised,” said a third person.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Disney Plus lost four million subscribers in the first three months of 2023, continuing a decline for the platform, which lost 2.4 million in the last quarter of 2022.

During Disney’s earnings call with analysts, chief financial officer Christine McCarthy announced that Disney will be “removing certain content from our streaming platforms”.

McCarthy told investors that the company expects a writedown of $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to $1.8bn (£1.4bn) as a result of removing the content.

She said that “going forward we intend to produce lower volumes of content in alignment with this strategic shift”.

Fans, however, were shocked to learn that the culling of titles from the platform was occurring so soon.

Disney Plus is home to a number of hugely popular shows, such as Marvel’s WandaVision, the Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian, and the critically acclaimed drama Dopesick, which explores America’s opioid crisis.

See below for a list of all the titles that have so far been confirmed to be removed:

• America the Beautiful

• Among the Stars

• Be Our Chef

• Best in Dough

• Best in Snow

• Better Nate Than Ever

• The Big Fib

• Big Shot

• Black Beauty

• Cheaper by the Dozen (2022)

• Clouds

• Darby and the Dead

• Diary of a Future President

• Disney Fairy Tale Weddings

• Dollface

• Earth to Ned

• Encore!

• Everything’s Trash

• Foodtastic

• Harmonious Live!

• Howard

• It’s a Dog’s Life With Bill Farmer

• Just Beyond

• Little Demon

• Love in the Time of Corona

• Maggie

• Magic Camp

• The Making of Willow

• The Mighty Ducks

• Marvel’s Hero Project

• Marvel’s MPower

• More Than Robots

• The Mysterious Benedict Society

• The One and Only Ivan

• Own the Room

• Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays

• Pick of the Litter

• Pistol

• The Premise

• The Princess

• The Quest

• The Real Right Stuff

• Rogue Trip

• Rosaline

• Shop Class

• A Spark Story

• Stargirl (2020)

• Stuntman

• Super/Natural

• Timmy Failure

• Turner & Hooch

• Weird but True!

• Willow

• Wolfgang

• The World According to Jeff Goldblum

• Y: The Last Man