In a blow to Netflix, "Star Wars" and Marvel movies will move to Disney's new streaming service when it launches in 2019, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Thursday.
The announcement ended questions about what would happen to Lucasfilm and Marvel movie content following last month's announcement of the new service.
“We’ve now decided we will put the Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ movies on this app as well,” Iger said during a question and answer session at a communications conference, Variety reported. Iger also said the service will launch in late 2019.
Four or five original Disney-branded films are expected to be produced for Disney’s streaming service, as well as four or five original Disney TV shows. Subscribers will be able to stream Disney’s nearly 500 movie catalog and 7,000 TV episodes, plus thousands of shorts, Deadline reported.
No price has yet been set for the service, but more details were promised by Iger in the coming months.
Netflix has been concentrating on its original content to prepare for the change. It poached Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal”) from ABC Television in an exclusive deal to provide content for the streaming provider.
Although Marvel series produced exclusively for Netflix such as "Daredevil" and "Luke Cage" were not specifically discussed, the announcement appeared to mention the LucasFilm and Marvel "cinematic universes" specifically, The Washington Post reported. Netflix’s deals for original Marvel content are exclusive of Disney’s film or other television content.
Disney’s stock was down about 4 percent after the announcement, and Netflix’s stock was about the same, Variety reported.
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