Disney+ preps Villains series
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 28 February 2019

Disney+, the House of Mouse’s upcoming streaming service, is developing a scripted series centred around iconic Disney villains, according to reports.

According to unnamed sources speaking to Variety, the series will be based on the existing Villains book series by Serena Valentino. The series will be entitled Book of Enchantments, and will reveal the origin stories of classic Disney baddies like Ursula (The Little Mermaid), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) and the Wicked Queen from Snow White.

The sources also said that Michael Seitzman will write and produce the series; Seitzman is known for CBS medical drama Code Black and ABC series Quantico.

Disney+ is expected to launch in late 2019. The service already has two new exclusive series from Star Wars and Marvel lined up to populate two of a planned five content channels on Disney+. The others will be Disney, Pixar and National Geographic (which Disney is acquiring from 21st Century Fox).

The decision to focus on specific brands is in high contrast to the high-volume strategies of Amazon Prime and Netflix, but Disney CEO Bob Iger said that differentiation will help it garner loyalty.

"We want to superserve the most ardent fans of those five brands,” he told analysts. It will be “very elegant and very brand-centric, and add navigational features that don’t exist on other platforms.”

Original shows will include such fare as a series with perennial antihero Loki, brother of Thor; and a Star Wars show with Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.