Our campaign’s decision to target Hulu is a strategic one.
With the Disney-Fox merger now complete and Disney given full control over Hulu in a deal with Comcast, the platform is prime real estate for a potential revival of the Daredevil series. Disney has released information regarding plans to house R-rated content on the Hulu platform - and to develop Marvel content aimed at adult audiences specifically for Hulu.
Disney’s Plan for Hulu
CONTENT EXPANSION
Changes are coming for Hulu. As outlined at the Walt Disney Company Investor Day on April 11, 2019, Disney plans to widely expand Hulu’s content offerings, including a strong increase in the number of new original episodic series - by year 5, that number rises to 50+.
What’s more, Disney’s plans include a hefty financial investment in original content for Hulu in the coming years, rising to over two billion dollars by fiscal year 2024.
As of July 2019, Walt Disney Television has taken oversight of Hulu’s original scripted drama and comedy development. As Dana Walden, head of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment said, “This new structure will enable Hulu to have access to many of the best creators in the world and programming from all of the content engines inside of Walt Disney Television.”
Not only do we know that Disney intends to bring new content to Hulu, but we also know that there are Marvel shows aimed at adult audiences in development and in production specifically for Hulu.
On May 1, 2019, two new Marvel live-action series were announced to debut 2020 on Hulu: Helstrom and Ghost Rider. The new series joined The Runaways, and five previously announced Marvel animated series, all adult-oriented: M.O.D.O.K., Hit-Monkey, Tigra & Dazzler, and Howard the Duck, all culminating in the team-up special The Offenders.
However, on September 25, 2019, Hulu announced it was not moving forward with Ghost Rider citing artistic differences. And The Runaways finished its final season on Hulu in 2019. On January 24, 2020, Variety confirmed that neither Howard the Duck nor Tigra and Dazzler were moving forward at Hulu. M.O.D.O.K. and Hit Monkey are still on track to be completed, the former having recently announced an all-star voice cast, and Helstrom successfully premiered on October 16, 2020.
Even though some projects were dropped, the takeaway is this - there are still Marvel shows currently in the works for Hulu. And executives at both Disney and Hulu realize the power and potential of a built-in fanbase such as Marvel’s, and are keeping consumers firmly in view:
Craig Erwich, head of Hulu's Originals division: “Marvel has a ton of titles we’d be interested in,” he said, when asked by TheWrap at the TCA press tour if Hulu would have interest in reviving one of those series. “It kind of just depends on when they’re ready, [and] who, most importantly, is going to be behind these things.”
On November 07, 2019, Bloomberg published an interview with Bob Iger about the coming changes to family-friendly D+, where it’s mentioned ‘Edgier Fox fare, such as TV’s Family Guy and the exuberantly R-rated Deadpool films, will remain on Hulu.’
Disney’s former head of streaming, Kevin Mayer: 'Marvel is strong with young adults... almost all consumers in our major markets around the world are familiar with our brands, and more than 1 billion people identify themselves as true fans. And when I say true fans, I don't mean folks who casually click a like button every now and then, these are passionate consumers with a strong or very strong relationship with our brands. And they are spending real money on our products. This deep emotional connection creates opportunities for tremendous success.' (emphasis added)
Hulu’s former Chief Executive Officer, Randy Freer: 'With the support of ownership as well as continuing to work with partner studios, Hulu has access to an unending stream of iconic characters, recognizable IP and the most sought‐after storytellers today. Hulu has the resources and creativity to go head to head with any TV product out there and win.' (emphasis added)
It’s clear that Marvel will play a role in Hulu’s future. With plans already in place to expand Hulu’s content offerings and to develop adult-oriented Marvel entertainment for the platform, we strongly believe Daredevil can and should be a part of that future.
INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
During the Disney earnings call on August 04, 2020, Disney updated their expansion plans. Hulu will remain US-based while Disney rolls out a new service, Star, to specifically embrace international markets. Both Hulu and Star will offer more mature-rated entertainment.
Bob Chapek ‐ Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company: “Like many companies, we've had to find innovative ways to conduct our business during the pandemic. While we view this as a devastating situation for everyone affected, it has also forced us to consider different approaches and look for new opportunities. In the process, we're discovering ways to better serve our consumers during this challenging period...
...Given the rapid changes in consumer behavior, we believe it is more important than ever that we continue to grow our direct relationship with our customers. And to this end, I am also pleased to announce that we plan to launch an international, direct-to-consumer, general entertainment offering under the Star brand in calendar year 2021. Mirroring the strategy we successfully pursued with Disney+, the offering will be rooted in content we own from the prolific and critically acclaimed production engines and libraries of ABC Studios, Fox Television, FX, Freeform, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight. In many markets, the offering will be fully integrated into our established Disney+ platform from both a marketing and a technology perspective. And it will be distributed under the Star brand, which has been successfully utilized by the company for other general entertainment platform launches, particularly with Disney+ Hotstar in India. The fact that Disney+ has grown as rapidly as it has, both domestically and globally, clearly demonstrates the value of our content. And through the addition of our Star-branded general entertainment offering, we are further extending the value of that content internationally.
To this end, as I mentioned, we will be hosting another investor day in the coming months, focused on our plans to accelerate the push into the direct-to-consumer marketplace across our Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star brands. Personally, I am as optimistic as I could be about our way forward, and I'm excited to share more about our plans with you in the coming months.”
Ultimately, this doesn’t affect our goals to Save Daredevil! Disney’s international plans remains the same, but will now be split between Hulu and Star, each embracing more mature, adult-oriented content. In the meantime, Hulu Originals still usually reach viewers in other countries through international licensing deals with other local streaming platforms and television networks and the existence of Star means that Hulu Originals will have a ready in-house international platform for distribution. The upcoming Disney Investor Day should bring more detailed information.
See archived content from this section.
Why not Disney+?
Disney has gone on record numerous times making it clear that Disney+ will only house family-friendly content. We are campaigning for a return of the show we love as we know it - mature, adult-oriented entertainment.
Agnes Chu – former Senior Vice President of Content, Disney+: “Ultimately, Disney+ will become the exclusive streaming home for all family‐friendly content from our brands.”
Karim Zreik, former Senior Vice President of Original Programming for Marvel Entertainment: “Disney is making a concerted effort to use all of the studios in their arsenal whether it’s Kennedy / Marshall doing Star Wars or Marvel; we [at Marvel] are providing content for them. [...] [Disney+] is a different platform. Disney+ is a family brand first, four quadrants so...that’s what we’re targeting. I don’t think they’d be interested in any edgy stuff, like what we did on Netflix.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger has spoken of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ as the “three legs of the stool” in Disney’s streaming strategy, and it has been confirmed that a bundle of the three services will be offered at the price of $12.99/month. Disney+ and Hulu will play unique but complementary roles in Disney’s streaming future, with Hulu the more fitting home for Daredevil.
Why not Netflix, HBO, or Amazon Prime?
Marvel is owned by Disney, and Disney is actively working to bring all its intellectual property back fully under its control. Moving forward, it’s extremely unlikely that Disney would make any further deals with streaming services it doesn’t own (such as Amazon Prime, HBO, Netflix, or various others) to develop or house Marvel content.
This page was last updated August 15, 2020.
ARCHIVED CONTENT
International Expansion
Hulu may be a U.S.-only service at the present time, but that too will soon change. Disney has gone on record regarding plans for taking the platform international, including at the April 2019 Investor Day:
Christine McCarthy ‐ Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company: 'Now given that our acquisition of Twenty‐First Century Fox closed just last month, we are still assessing the prospect and timing of international launches which would have an impact on our financial outlook for Hulu. '
Kevin Mayer: '... And with our newly acquired majority stake of Hulu, we're actively evaluating international rollout strategies for that service. One of the main drivers behind our acquisition of 21st Century Fox was to accelerate and enhance our Direct To Consumer businesses overseas.'
This serves to affirms Kevin Mayer’s statement in Dec 18, 2018 when asked by the Hollywood Reporter:*
How does Hulu fit into your international plans?
We would like to have an international trilogy of services where it makes sense. We want a sports service like we have here; we want a general entertainment service, which would be Hulu, in different places around the world where we don't have that; and we want to have Disney around the world. An international rollout of Hulu would be something that we'd be very interested in, and we're talking to Hulu about that now.
Hulu’s future is international, making it not only a desirable home for future seasons of Daredevil - but making Daredevil, with its global fanbase, a very desirable property for Hulu in return. One thing is for sure: we will do our part to continue making it known to Hulu that there is a tremendous fanbase ready to bring their dollars to the subscription service that Saves Daredevil.
