Disney officially removed select Disney+ content from the platform, so what does that mean for Star Wars movies and shows that are on the streaming service?
There is a massive library of projects on Disney+ from all different brands such as Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, etc.
Disney CFO Christine McCarthy announced during the company's second-quarter earnings report that some of this content will be taking a hit, which has resulted in many movies and television series now being unavailable on the service.
The reasoning behind this move is to cut costs for Disney, as well as so the movies and shows on the platform will be of higher quality. In other words, Disney is taking a less-is-more approach.
Will Star Wars Content Get Removed From Disney+?
Disney already removed certain movies and television shows from the Disney+ streaming service in order to save money.
As reported by The Wrap, this was part of a completely new strategic plan Disney began implementing when CEO Bob Iger returned, which included a number of layoffs.
Multiple Disney+ original series were already canceled following Iger's return to the company, including National Treasure: Edge of History and Willow, which was produced by Lucasfilm.
Iger himself admitted that as much content as possible was made available since Disney+ launched so that the streaming service could amass as many subscribers as possible. However, the CEO recently stated that "a lot of content" that is on there "is not necessarily driving growth."
Laughing Place also reported that more cuts could be coming, with Disney planning to remove more produced content on its streamers like Disney+ and Hulu within the third fiscal quarter. The initial content purge will allow the Walt Disney Company to record a $1.5 billion impairment charge with its fiscal third-quarter financial statements, so it makes sense that further removals would follow.
Many Star Wars fans are wondering whether or not there is a need to worry about the possible removal of movies and shows from the galaxy far, far away.
This is especially concerning to some due to the fact that Disney+ shows are not available in a physical format. For example, The Mandalorian can only be viewed on the streaming service, and there is nowhere to buy a physical version of it.
However, most, if not all of the Star Wars projects on the platform are more than likely safe from being removed.
Of all the different brands and titles on Disney+, Star Wars is among the most popular, comfortably sitting beside the likes of Marvel and Pixar.
For example, it was reported in March 2022 that The Mandalorian was the most-viewed show on the entire platform, with 14.5 billion minutes of watch time in 2020 alone, and The Book of Boba Fett boasted 4.4 billion minutes.
It is also important to remember that the world of Star Wars is all connected, so if Disney were to remove one project, it would only hurt the overall story.
Star Wars is also simply just an extremely valuable franchise as a whole. 2015's The Force Awakens became the highest-grossing film domestically of all time, and each of the sequel trilogy movies surpassed $1 billion in total revenue.
However, there are a select few projects under the Star Wars umbrella that Disney could get rid of if it wanted to. These projects are not all that popular when compared to others, and they wouldn't affect the greater Star Wars story.
These titles are all included under the "Star Wars Vintage" category on Disney+, and include Droids, Caravan of Courage, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, Ewoks, The Story of the Faithful Wookiee, and Genndy Tartakovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars 2-D Micro-Series.
While these projects are likely nostalgic for some, they likely do not produce the streaming numbers that others do. However, there is one title on that list that is likely safe from removal, and it is the Clone Wars series.
It's also worth noting that a Lucasfilm project has already been removed from Disney+ in the form of the series Willow, setting the precedent that projects from the studio are at risk.
Even though Disney is trying to remove as many unnecessary projects as it can for the sake of cost-cutting, most of the Star Wars movies and shows are probably completely safe.
Disney's Quality Over Quantity Approach
It is important to understand that Disney's reasoning for cutting down on Disney+ is for a purpose, and that purpose will only benefit the galaxy far, far away.
All of this money that will be saved in the future won't just be going into someone's pocket, it will be distributed to other projects to make them bigger and better.
There are a lot of current projects being developed under the Disney umbrella, all of which cost a lot of money to make.
More money means that Disney won't have to stretch its funds out so much just so projects can be made and released - they can actually have wiggle room to be able to elevate these projects.
This is an especially positive outlook when it comes to Star Wars because of the three films that were recently announced at Star Wars Celebration.
Since these movies are set to be released years down the line, they will all likely benefit from the cost-cutting that Disney is trying to implement.
