What’s It Gonna Take for Disney+ To FIX Its Content Problem?

Alright Disney, let’s have a little chat.

©Disney

It appears that Disney+ is on the up and up financially after finally becoming profitable, but that doesn’t mean all is well with the streaming platform. Disney recently raised subscription prices and has been cracking down on password sharing, upsetting many of its users. However, Disney maximizing profits is not a new phenomenon. Instead, the issue that needs discussing is Disney+’s content quality problem.

Whether or not you love everything Disney+ puts out content-wise, I feel like it’s fair to say that from the general critics’ and fans’ perspectives, Disney+ objectively has a content issue. With response varying tremendously from project to project, it lacks original quality consistency when compared to competitors like Apple TV or HBO. Let’s take a look at what I mean by that and how Disney+ can get back on track to win over audiences!

©Disney

Before causing an uproar accusing Disney of having a content issue on its streaming service, I have to interject that I don’t find Disney+ shows to be an affront to humanity like the internet may suggest they are. Some shows have really stuck with me such as WandaVision while others didn’t really do it for me (Secret Invasion). Personally, I’m overall satisfied with the original content Disney+ has given us, but as an unbiased observer, it’s impossible to ignore that general audiences have had much more severe reactions to perceived misses.

©Marvel

Right now, Disney+ has a banger on its hands with Agatha All Along which boasts a super-respectable 82% critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. However, we’re not far removed from Star Wars: The Acolyte, which has a meager 18% audience score and was canceled despite having a massive budget and solid critic scores (78%).

It’s true that for many Disney projects both on Disney+ and in theaters, there is a pretty big divide between audiences and the critics. However, the former drives the industry, so if you aren’t appeasing them, you’re not experiencing heightened success.

©Disney

So why aren’t audiences falling in love with every Disney+ project? Some claim it has to do with a “woke agenda”. This topic has come up more than once, even causing The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger to say the “primary mission needs to be to entertain” and that he’s “very serious about that. It should not be agenda-driven. It should be entertainment-driven. That should be the goal in all of our stories.”

From this writer’s perspective, I think that’s an oversimplification of Disney+’s original content struggles to positively engage audiences. I don’t think the content produced by Disney+ suffers from any sort of political messaging, but instead by missteps in the pre-production process. Allow me to explain…

©Disney

The new creative head of DC Studios at Warner Bros., James Gunn, knows a thing or two about Disney entertainment. Once considered the right-hand man of Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Gunn was brought in by Warner to bring DC content up to the standards the Marvel Cinematic Universe set. In his first phase at DC, Gunn has made it public that DC Studios has no intention to oversaturate audiences. A few shows and movies each year help maintain quality control, according to Gunn.

Showrunners and movie execs at Marvel and Lucasfilm have vocally agreed that cutting back content is probably a good idea after facing tons of backlash regarding quality over the past several years. But are they actually practicing what they’re preaching? In 2025 alone, Marvel is releasing Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Daredevil: Born Again, Ironheart, Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, and Wonder Man on Disney+.

©Marvel

I know that if you keep throwing darts at a board, you’ll eventually hit a bullseye but you may also miss pretty ridiculously at times. Disney would work up better audience relations if it only released a few shows each year but each show was universally praised. Quality over quantity will always ring true, as platforms like HBO have shown us.

Another problem with oversaturation is that really great content can get easily overlooked. There’s only so much time in a day, and a sliver of that time will be spent on entertainment. We pick and choose what we want to watch and some shows will be left out in the dust because of that, unfortunately. Narrowing down options slightly to projects Disney really believes in helps create credibility while uplifting content that might’ve otherwise been skipped.

©Disney/Marvel

Part of quality control is consistency. I hate to keep bringing up HBO but it is the standard-bearer when it comes to television content. HBO generally has the luxury of creating content that doesn’t intersect with each other. The Penguin has nothing to do with The Last of Us. But because of the way Disney has leaned into franchise continuity, its content is under much more scrutiny.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ties into WandaVision which ties into Spider-Man Homecoming which now ties into Deadpool & Wolverine which now all of a sudden ties into the Blade franchise. The same can be said about all the storylines anything Star Wars must connect to.

The point is that Disney has knee-capped itself with its content. Creating a roadmap for franchises is easy when it’s just a couple of films and shows, but for its big money-makers, these stories have exploded into several different threads that are seriously hard to follow, even for the creators.

©Marvel

Fans nowadays are getting confused because they missed a show or movie and are now out of the loop, the stories retcon a previous plot point established in a franchise, or the writing isn’t comprehensive enough to consider something that was established over a decade ago.

One solution is to create more standalone content. It’s so refreshing to watch something without needing to do homework. And if something must be included in a specific timeline, double down on story approvals. Creators have to do their homework to make sure character decisions and plot points make sense within the universes in which they exist. Unfortunately for these giant franchises, that’s the price of oversaturation these last several years.

Not only that but days of winging it have to be over. When the MCU was in its heyday, the team at Marvel had an Endgame in mind. The original content at Disney+ should fit that mold so that it serves a purpose and adds cohesion to its respective franchise.

©Lucasfilm

With that said, I still think standalone original content is the way to go with Disney+ content. If Disney wants to keep pumping out series after series, releasing a couple big-time franchise shows with tons of standalone shows from other properties like Pixar and Disney Animation each year would be an effective route. Marvel, for example, has played around with and will continue to explore multiverse stories that slightly tie into the mainline MCU without being canon or must-watch, and I personally think that takes a lot of stress off the viewers while allowing show creators to really have fun with the material.

©Pixar

The more Disney+ can allow storytellers creative freedom without the confines of decades’ worth of rigid storytelling, the better off we’ll be as viewers. When sitting in on the Marvel animation panel at this year’s D23 fan expo, I listened to so many creators talk about how passionate they are about their projects and it was a reminder that creative freedom often leads to the best content.

©Marvel

Alright, so we’ve talked about how Disney+ needs to scale back on its shows, really hone in on quality control, try to create more standalone content, and create more long-term game plans for its mega franchises. However, there’s one more thing Disney+ needs to do to win over audiences: create tonal variety.

We’ve already started to see Disney+ do a little bit of this with Daredevil: Born Again, Werewolf by Night, and Marvel Zombies. The idea here is to create something for everyone. The platform can offer plenty of kid-friendly shows, entertainment for teens, and heavier content for adults. The idea is to simply cast a wider audience net. As Disney continues to tighten its grip on the film industry, it needs to be willing to cater to all kinds of content demand.

©Disney

We’ve seen Disney start to embrace that mindset recently. Disney+ is no longer shying away from R-rated content, nor is it moving off its child-friendly offerings. By offering parental locks, the platform frees itself from its previous confines and can truly become a multi-faceted streaming service.

The key to any good media library is to appeal to niche audiences while simultaneously making the broad base happy. I personally see Disney+ trending in this direction and it gives me hope that fans will warm up more to the service in the future.

©Disney

All in all, I think frustration stems from the fact that we’ve seen some really top-notch quality on Disney+ and it’s disappointing when that quality isn’t consistent. Disney is still figuring out this new frontier, but I’m hoping it finds the right formula and provides winners consistently.

How do you feel about Disney+ content? Are reports of its demise greatly overexaggerated? Is it beyond saving? Share your thoughts below and continue to follow us at DFB for more Disney entertainment content!

NEWS: Disney+ Password Crackdown Continues with New Paid Sharing

Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe!

WE KNOW DISNEY.
YOU CAN, TOO.

---

Oh boy, planning a Disney trip can be quite the adventure, and we totally get it! But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE Disney vacation.

Whether you're a rookie or a seasoned pro, our insider tips and tricks will have you exploring the parks like never before. So come along with us, and get planning your most magical vacation ever!

What advice would you give Disney+ to help it maximize the quality of its content? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post What’s It Gonna Take for Disney+ To FIX Its Content Problem? first appeared on the disney food blog.

from the disney food blog https://ift.tt/sG4W2bH