Credit: Inside the MagicOctober is the one month where Disney+ and Hulu actually compete with each other.
The rest of the year, the split is clean. Disney+ handles family, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar. Hulu handles FX, adult drama, and the back catalog nobody expects to find under a Mickey logo.
Then Halloween arrives, both platforms launch their seasonal events, and suddenly you have Hereditary and Hotel Transylvania arriving in the same week on services owned by the same company.
That is October. Hallowstream on Disney+, Huluween on Hulu, and a calendar so dense it is genuinely hard to parse.
Here is what actually matters, sorted so you can find it.
The Big Premieres
Start with the tentpoles.
Coven Academy drops October 2 on Disney+ and Hulu with all episodes streaming. The supernatural teen drama premieres October 1 on Freeform and has already drawn a boycott call from a parental advocacy group before airing a single episode.
The Banana Bowl streams live on Disney+ October 10 at 8 p.m. ET, capping a year that brought Banana Ball to both Disney resorts.
VisionQuest premieres on Disney+ October 14, with new episodes October 21 and 28.
American Horror Story: 13 launches October 1 on Hulu with three episodes at 9 p.m. PT, running weekly through a finale on October 29.
Abbott Elementary returns for season 6 on Hulu October 8.
The ABC Wave
Mid-October is when broadcast season fully lands on Hulu.
- 9-1-1 season 10 premieres October 16
- 9-1-1: Nashville season 2 premieres October 16
- Grey’s Anatomy season 23 premieres October 16
- Scrubs season 2 gets a two-episode premiere October 1
- Shark Tank season 18 gets a two-episode premiere October 1
- Celebrity Wheel of Fortune season 7 premieres October 3
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? season 5 continues weekly
That October 16 trio is the real event. Three ABC dramas returning the same day is a lot of appointment viewing in one shot.
Dancing with the Stars season 35 continues streaming live Tuesdays on Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET, with episodes hitting Hulu Wednesdays.
The Halloween Movie Dump
This is where Hulu goes genuinely deep, and October 1 is the heaviest day.
Arriving October 1:
- Barbarian (2022)
- Edward Scissorhands (1990)
- Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
- Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)
- All four Night at the Museum films
- All five Die Hard films
- Grown Ups and Grown Ups 2
- Surf’s Up and Surf’s Up 2
Arriving October 3:
- Hereditary (2018)
- Midsommar (2019)
That October 3 pairing is the most aggressive thing on the entire calendar. Hereditary and Midsommar back to back is not casual Halloween viewing, and putting them on the same platform that has Hotel Transylvania is exactly the split Hulu is built for.
Also arriving:
- The Substance (2024) on October 2
- Soulm8te (2026) on October 1
- Hokum (2026) on October 10
- Companion (2025) and Wolf Man on October 18
- All five Hunger Games films on October 14
- Last Breath (2025) on October 25
Family and Kids Programming
Disney+ carries the lighter side, and there is a lot of it.
Halloween specials:
- Big City Greens season 5 Halloween special, October 7
- Kiff Halloween special, October 7
- Phineas and Ferb Halloween special premiere, October 7
- Family Guy: Happy Hell-o-ween on Hulu, coming in October
Premieres and new episodes:
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ season 2, October 1
- Pupstruction season 3, October 2
- Vampirina: Teenage Vampire season 2, October 7, all episodes
- Adventure Time: Side Quests season 2, October 2, all episodes
- Marvel’s Iron Man and his Awesome Friends, new episodes October 28
- Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends season 5, new episodes October 30
- SuperKitties: Su-Purr Adventures shorts season 3, October 16
- Locker Diaries: Coven Academy, premiering October 17 with new episodes weekly
October 7 is quietly the best day of the month for families. Three Halloween specials in a single day.
Documentary and Unscripted
- Africa Earth’s Wild Home, October 3, all episodes
- Surviving Alaska: Women of the Wild, October 7, all episodes
- Megastorm, October 14, all episodes
- Super Scam Me special, October 17
- Jamie Foxx: Take Care of Yourself, October 7 on Hulu
Hulu Originals Worth Noting
- Reasonable Doubt season 4, three-episode premiere October 6
- Merry Berry Love, premiering October 7
- Between Steps, premiering October 5 with episodes through the month
- Benefits with Friends season 2, October 9, all episodes
- Clown Panic, October 12
- Phony, October 20
- The Mob, October 26
- FX’s The Lowdown season 2, two-episode premiere October 14
- FX’s The Drop: A Snowfall Saga, weekly through a finale October 27
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 18 finale, October 12
Anime on Hulu
Genuinely substantial this month.
- Tokyo Revengers: War of the Three Titans Arc, premiering October 2
- Gachiakuta season 1 part 1, October 5, subbed and dubbed
- Beyblade X season 3A, October 8
- Mission: Yozakura Family season 2 cour 2, October 11
- Haikyu!! season 1 dubbed, October 12
- Campfire Cooking in Another World, October 12
- Classroom of the Elite season 1, October 27
- The God of High School season 1, October 27
The New Playlists Feature
Worth knowing about separately.
Disney+ has introduced Playlists, which bundle episodes and movies into continuous viewing with full playback controls, curated by genre, franchise, character, or mood.
Seasonal Halloween playlists are coming, including:
- Halloween Episodes
- Halloween Movies
- Halloween Throwbacks
- Huluween Episodes
- Huluween Movies
- The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror
For anyone who spends more time scrolling than watching, this is the feature that fixes that.
What to Actually Plan Around
Three dates stand out.
October 1 for the movie dump, which is the single largest drop of the month.
October 7 if you have kids, with three Halloween specials landing together.
October 16 for the ABC returns, with 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Nashville, and Grey’s Anatomy all back the same day.
Source: Disney+ and Hulu October 2026 programming announcements.
