The Walt Disney Company is investing billions more in its Disney+, film and television content in the coming year.
Per Variety, Disney filed an annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week regarding its 2022 fiscal year, with the estimated spending total being $33 billion. The company spent $25 billion in 2021 but now intends to further expand its direct-to-consumer streaming library on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Plus, including a focus on "sports rights" within ESPN's subscription service.
The report also states Disney will produce roughly 50 titles for release in theaters and on its streaming services in 2022, including original and franchise-based film and TV projects from companies under its ownership. According to Disney's General Entertainment Content unit, this number goes even further in its TV department, with more than 100 series going into development. Sixty of these are unscripted, 30 are comedies, 25 are dramas, 15 are docuseries/limited series and 10 are animated. Five made-for-TV movies and a number of untitled shorts are also on the docket. Official release dates for most of these projects were not provided.
Much of Disney's 2021 streaming content was dominated by its first exclusive lineup of Disney+ Marvel shows, which coalesce with the Marvel Cinematic Universe's ongoing Phase 4 narrative. Disney+ recently debuted the first two episodes of the Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld-starring Hawkeye series on Nov. 24, which follows after the year's releases of WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and the animated series Marvel's What If...?. Next year will see new Phase 4 shows like Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Secret Invasion, all of which were previewed at November's Disney+ Day event.
Compared to Marvel, Disney's Star Wars lineup saw fewer series releases this year, dropping The Bad Batch episodically in May and all nine episodes of Star Wars: Visions at once on Sept. 22. Its first spinoff from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, will come out on Dec. 29, following the iconic bounty hunter as he and partner Fennec Shand assume command of Jabba the Hutt's former criminal empire. One major Star Wars series confirmed for 2022 is director Deborah Chow's Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which also received a teaser on Disney+ Day.
Disney's 2022 film releases will include not only family-oriented projects like Pixar's Turning Red, but also former 20th Century Fox projects like Death on the Nile and Avatar 2. The company is also set to release spinoffs of Zootopia and Big Hero 6 alongside a new Ice Age project titled Adventures of Buck Wild.
Source: Variety