Unlike other streaming services, Disney doesn’t announce in advance that titles are going to be leaving Disney+.  While in the United States, it’s common for a title or two to leave Disney+ due to contracts made with other platforms such as HBO or Starz, before Disney+ was created or before the Walt Disney Company purchased 20th Century Fox.

Internationally, it’s been much less common for titles to be removed, but it still happens occasionally. However, in the past week, Disney+ worldwide, including in the UK, Netherlands, Australia and Canada, has had dozens of titles removed without warning.  There is also some regional variation with the removal of content.  These removals generally don’t impact Disney+ in the United States, since they are all within the Star brand, which are normally found on Hulu.

Some of the interesting titles that have been removed lately include many Star Originals, such as:

  • Promised Land
  • Queens
  • Our Kind Of People
  • Rebel
  • The Big Leap

There have also been several 20th Century Studios series and films removed, including:

  • Downhill
  • Titanic
  • Breakthrough
  • Dollhouse
  • Wayward Pines

Other random shows that have been removed in some countries include:

  • Blossom
  • According To Jim

In addition to some National Geographic documentaries and third-party films/shows, some of which had only recently been added.

Currently, it’s not known why there have been so many films and shows removed at once.  There are many reasons why this could be the case, such as:

  • A Glitch – These titles may have been removed by mistake, or an incorrect expiry date was inputted, making them unavailable.
  • Licenses – Some of these titles might have come to the end of their licensing agreement with Disney.  However, some of these titles are owned by Disney, so this seems less likely.
  • Licensed Out – An alternative theory is Disney has removed titles to license out to other platforms, though this seems unlikely as usually, those deals have previously been non-exclusive.
  • Budget – One of the interesting issues with the Star Originals being removed, all of these series have been cancelled.  So could Disney be taking a page out of Warner Brothers Discovery’s rulebook and removing them as a tax write-off?

If this is a glitch, these titles may return to Disney+.  One title that was removed and re-added in the past week was the Star Original special, “Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself”.  We’ve seen Disney+ suffer a similar issue in the past, with huge numbers of titles being removed and brought back.

Usually, removals tend to follow a pattern, but these latest removals are from different studios, so a glitch would seem more likely.

Ultimately, we’ve just got to wait and see.  If this is a glitch and things are returned, hopefully, it won’t happen again.  But if these removals are permanent, this is terrible news for Disney+ subscribers.

I’ve reached out to Disney a few days ago for clarification about why all of these titles have been removed from Disney+ and have been told they are looking into it.  Once I get an update, I will update this article.

What do you think of these removals?

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Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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1 Comments

  1. Jon Potter October 4, 2022

    With the rate that these removals are happening, there may be nothing to watch by Christmas! I’m joking, obviously. More seriously though, the randomness and extended period of time for this issue definitely leans towards a glitch for me. There’s just too much from varied places for this to be a group contract expiring. Plus, we’ve seen items added just weeks ago vanish. If this was planned, why even add those? Something odd is going on. While penny-pinching is a perfectly viable theory, most of this stuff is modern and owned by Disney. They’re not stuffed with old music rights etc, so at a glance the savings feel minimal compared to the overall costs for churning out content.