
Multiple Disney+ Originals Removed In Europe
Over the past few years, Disney has slowly built up a vast collection of international originals for Disney+, with productions coming from across Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Australasia. The aim of these originals is to boost sign-ups in local countries as audiences often respond better to locally produced content rather than just a string of US-focused shows and films.
Often these international originals are released globally on Disney+, in addition to also being made available via Hulu and Hulu On Disney+. But over the past few years, we’ve seen many originals, including those made outside the US, removed from Disney+ in an effort to save money.
Last year, over a hundred shows, including “Willow,” “Big Shot,” and “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” were removed from Disney+. This was done to write off billions of dollars worth of content as assets that no longer had value, and whenever a new show is cancelled due to underperforming viewership, it’s often also removed from Disney+ globally.
Recently, there has been a wave of removals from Disney+ in Europe, including originals from Japan, Korea, and Indonesia, such as:
- The Impossible Heir
- The Dragons Of Wonderhatch
- My Home Hero
- Maestra: Strings Of Truth
- Tell Me That You Love Me
- The Wedding Agreement
- Wonderful World
It’s important to note that these removals are slightly different from previous removals since they are still available on Hulu and Hulu On Disney+ in the United States and in many other countries across the world, including Korea, so it’s not a full global removal as we’ve seen before.
Roger’s Take: It’s not uncommon for Disney to remove less popular original series, and Disney+ is now regularly removing titles on a monthly basis in Europe, often down to licensing agreements with third parties but also to clear out some of the lower performing titles. Another theory is that due to quotas requiring Disney+ in Europe to have a certain percentage of its content made within Europe, removing some less popular content regularly will help keep the streaming service in line with those quotas since it’s much cheaper to remove unpopular titles than create more European-made content. So it’s unlikely we will see these return anytime soon in Europe.
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