Earlier this month, Disney confirmed that its streaming service is in the process of "reviewing the content on [its] DTC [direct-to-consumer] services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation."
What does that mean? To put it in terms which are easier to understand, it basically means the company has decided to remove content from Disney+ starting May 26 in order to save money.
That means taking a write-down in its next quarter of $1.5 billion - $1.8 billion by removing content from both this platform and Hulu. From there, Disney can exclude the value of this content from its balance sheet, preventing it from being reported as an expense in subsequent reporting periods.
It's unclear whether Disney is considering offloading some of these movies and TV shows to other streamers, but until a decision is made on that front, many titles - including the Willow TV series - are no longer available to watch.
Talking of that show, the decision had already been made to not move forward with a second season prior to this decision. Reviews for the follow-up to the cult classic movie starring Warwick Davis were mixed, though showrunner Jon Kasdan insisted that the door remained open to Willow one day returning to our screens.
Its removal from Disney+ arguably makes a season 2 even more unlikely, but the filmmaker (who was also robbed of the opportunity to write his planned sequel to Solo: A Star Wars Story) doesn't appear to be fazed by the news. In fact, he kind of likes it, and seems hopeful this decision will ultimately increase interest in the revival.
You can read Kasdan's comments in full below.
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