Disney Ditches Completed Series Before It Can Ever Be Seen

In a world where no streaming release is safe, Disney just pulled the plug on another completed project.

Earlier this year, The Walt Disney Company’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and former Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy revealed that serious content curation would be taking place for Disney+.

Costing in the region of $1.5 billion to execute, the content purge took effect in May in an effort to streamline the business. At the time of its announcement, it wasn’t clear how much of the catalog or what movies and TV shows were going to be culled, and it turned out to be incredibly surprising.

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McCarthy said: “We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation.”

“As a result, we will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion,” McCarthy continued. “The charge, which will not be recorded in our segment results, will primarily be recognized in the third quarter as we complete our review and remove the content.”

Disney+ Removals

Lucasfilm’s $100 million Willow TV series got the chop after being canceled after one season and only being on the service for 6 months. It was one of many. Initially, the documentary based on Howard Ashman was set to be removed, but Disney kept the 2018 film on the service after backlash from fans.

Now, Disney has sent one more series to the chopping block before it even made it to audiences.

The Spiderwick Chronicles, based on the children’s fantasy books of the same name by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, was originally announced back in November 2021 on Disney+ day two years after the launch of the streaming service.

Produced by Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television, the completed show has been ditched by Disney and will no longer be released on Disney+. Instead, The Spiderwick Chronicles is now being shopped elsewhere.

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The news comes as Disney moves to a more laser focus on its own Intellectual Property (IP), with Disney Branded Television focusing more on IP going forward (via Deadline).

The finished eight-episode series stars Christian Slater as the villain Mulgarath, Jack Dylan Grazer as Thimbletack, Lyon Daniels as Jared Grace, Noah Cottrell as Simon Grace, Joy Bryant as Helen Grace, and Mychala Lee as Mallory Grace.

Were you looking forward to The Spiderwick Chronicles on Disney+? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!