Disney Hopes to Marvel at Investor Day 2020

For most, tomorrow will be December 10, a whopping 15 days before many celebrate the joys of Christmas. But for some, tomorrow could bring its own Christmas suprises, as the many leaders at Disney will meet for their 2020 Investors Day, where they will present ideas/plans for the immediate future of the company. Last year's Investor Day in April marked the introduction to Disney+, it's pricing and logistics, the announcements of multiple MCU original series and other announced original programming, as well as exclusive back catalog entries. Of course, these announcements were all made in a pre-COVID world and at a time when most of Disney's business was maintaining the status quo and better, especially when it came to it's movie studios (particularly Marvel). Tomorrow, Disney heads will attempt to wow its many stakeholders and fans with plans for a very uncertain future regarding mainstream media, and the rumors are running rampant.

Here are some of the many ideas/rumors/speculation surrounding what may come from Disney's Investor Day 2020:

1. The announcement of an 18+ section for Disney+ where the studio can add much of the newly acquired backlog from Fox

2. Alternatively, there is a rumor that Disney will look to merge Disney+ and Hulu in order to offer content for all audiences in one place

3. Confirmation that Deadpool 3 is coming, as well as a long-term plan for Ryan Reynolds MCU involvement

4. Black Widow announced as a Disney+ Premiere Exclusive

5. Upcoming live-action Disney remakes/originals (such as Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Cruella) will be released exclusively on Disney+

6. New Disney+ series announced (Iron Heart, Agents of SWORD, Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano)

7. MCU Phase 5 Announcements

8. Any word on the Fantastic Four or the X-Men

9. Trailers or trailer dates for Eternals or Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I highly doubt most of any of those rumors will come to fruition, let alone that some of these topics even get touched upon. This Investor Day is billed as presenting plans for the various streaming servies that Disney has control over, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and the newly upcoming interenational offering, Star. For that reason, anything not included or directly being offered on any streaming service would firmly ignored. For that reason, I do not expect anything to come from Marvel Studios pertaining to Phase 5 or any part of the MCU movie future. Not only is there 3 movies still set to release, but this is not the type of forum that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios has typically used in recent years to discuss such topics. Now, if there is an announcement I could see, it is a change in strategy regarding Black Widow's release.

Just as the last Investor Day was pre-COVID, it was also pre-Warner Bros. changing the movie release game. Coming off the heels of WB's announcement that it's entire 2021 movie slae would be released simultaneously on HBOMax and in theaters, it's hard to imagine Disney not offering a response. HBOMax just became the premiere name in streaming for 2021 and while Disney still has the subscription numbers and name recognition, it cannot even come close to the type of content WB will be offering on its service next year.

What is Disney to do? Well, I don't know if they will mimic that release strategy, especially with the publicized negative reaction from AMC and various directions regarding WB's decision, but maybe Black Widow being offered on DIsney+ and in theaters is a possibility. Will that still include the $30 premiere charge? Maybe. People need to remember that, yes, while WB offering their movies for free for 30 days on HBOMax is awesome, they also earn more per subscription (almost double) and Disney still wants to make money. I don't think that justifies $30 in the slightest, but if there is a charge for Black Widow on Disney+, I wouldn't be surprised. Unfortunately, another option to curtail that difference is to increase the cost of Disney+ subscriptions, which is not unheard of following the first year of a new service. I definitely think that Disney will want to try to stick to their guns with the latter-2021 MCU releases, but that there may be enough smoke surrounding other Disney releases to support other releases being move to Disney+ exclusives in the same manner Soul will be released in a few weeks. I see this primarily involving some of their live-action remakes like Peter Pan.

I do anticiapte some indication of how distribution will work between Disney and Hulu since both apps have different target audiences and Disney is still sitting on a lot of back catalog to offer. I think an 18+ section on Disney+ is more likely than a combining of Hulu and Disney, but I would welcome any indication of Disney acknowledging that non-family friendly content is ok too. I am sure there will be new show announcements as there was last year, with expected announcements for both new Marvel and Star Wars series, let's not forget other Disney properties and National Geographic offerrings. There is still casting news for shows that could be made official, such as the star of Marvel's She-Hulk. What I m holding onto is something suprisingly drastic. I am not sure what that would look like, but for the better part of a year, Disney has survived off a single property, The Mandalorian, and there is no way they can plan to sustain that. Recent talks of a COVID-19 vaccine will likely impact how Disney makes decisions on how content is released, but even if the world returned to a more familiar status quo, I don't know that reverting back to typical business strategies will see typical success.