What to Expect from Disney+ Day 2022: Deals, ‘Mando’ Teaser, MCU Dates, ‘Hocus Pocus’ Trailer, More
With Star Wars Celebration Days now complete, Disney has announced its next major fan event, Disney+ Day 2022. Though last year’s first-ever Disney+ Day happened in mid-November, Mickey and company are bringing the now seemingly annual event to fans on Sept. 8, 2022.
Disney has already announced that the event will feature the release day announcement of the live-action “Pinocchio” film starring Tom Hanks, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Keegan-Michael Key, and more. The company also promises to announce more Disney+ Day premieres from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic in the coming months. Disney+ Day 2022 will serve as a primer for the highly anticipated Disney fan extravaganza D23 Expo running in Anaheim from Sept. 9. through 11.
At last year’s inaugural Disney+ Day, fans were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the now premiered “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series; a slew of release days for films, series, and shorts; first looks at highly anticipated shows from Marvel; new movie and series announcements; and much more.
While there will likely be tons of similar content announcements this time around (more on that in a bit), the timing of this year’s event might be a clue at some of the bigger-picture details that will be revealed at Disney+ Day 2022. At the company’s Upfront presentation in mid-May, Disney announced that their soon-to-come ad-supported tier will be limited to just four minutes of commercials per hour and won’t feature ads on children’s content. But they did not discuss pricing or a release date.
Related: Is Disney+ Preparing to Raise Its Ad-Free Prices with Launch of Ad-Supported Tier?
Dancing with Commercials?
While it is possible that the company could release that information in the three+ months before Disney+ Day, Sept. 8 does look like the ideal time to unveil the highly anticipated, lower-priced streaming option. The event comes just ahead of the traditional start of the fall television season, and while streaming services have not been especially beholden to the old TV calendar, Disney+ does have a new asset that it might want to keep on that well-worn timetable.
In April, Disney announced that it was moving its long-running competition hit “Dancing with the Stars” from ABC to Disney+. And wouldn’t you know it, the last four seasons of “DWTS” have premiered in mid to late-September and every fall season of the show has done so dating back to Season 3 in 2006.
With “DWTS” planned to be the streamer’s first-ever live program, it will inherently have commercial breaks built into the broadcast, and what better time to launch the ad-supported version of the platform? With the show’s older-skewing fanbase perhaps interested in migrating from traditional TV over to streaming — if the price is right — by tying the announcement of the first “Dancing with the Stars” streaming season to the release of details about the ad-supported Disney+ option, the service will look to bring in a whole new crop of subscribers.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if “DWTS” forwent the normal “Good Morning America” announcement and revealed a Disney and Disney+ heavy cast on Sept. 8 as well.
What Else Could We See?
As part of the Disney+ Day date announcement, the studio gave us a teaser trailer for “Pinocchio,” but there are likely to be even more peeks at upcoming projects at the event itself. At last week’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm announced that “The Mandalorian” Season 3 would be premiering in early 2023, so that feels like a great candidate to get a first look at come Disney+ Day. While it’s probably a bit too early for a full trailer a teaser or key art of a surprise character definitely feels like it’s in the cards.
In early September on the Marvel front, we will be halfway through “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” with “Secret Invasion,” “Echo,” “Ironheart,” the animated “X-Men ‘97,” “Armor Wars,” and “Loki” Season 2 still to come. It is probable that Disney+ will announce streaming dates for many of these projects on Sept. 8, and based on production schedules, it is likely that we could even get trailers or teasers for “Secret Wars,” “Echo,” “Ironheart,” and/or “X-Men ‘97.” However, a first look at “Loki” Season 2 would quite possibly set the internet on fire.
I would also anticipate more details around the MCU Halloween special reported to center on Marvel horror favorite Werewolf by Night. Little is known about this Disney+ special as of now — even whether or not it will air in 2022 — but since Gael Garcia Bernal has reportedly been cast as the lead, it would make sense for the special to hit Disney+ on all Hallow’s Eve.
Sticking with the holidays, “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” is slated to hit the streamer in December, so seeing a glimpse of Peter Quill and the rest of the Guardians celebrating the holidays is also a big contender for Disney+ Day.
Early September would also be a great time for Disney to drop a trailer for the upcoming “Hocus Pocus” sequel, “The Clauses” series, “The Muppets Mayhem,” and more.
When you wish upon a star…⭐
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) May 31, 2022
Watch the trailer for the all-new live action #Pinocchio and stream the movie, a #DisneyPlusDay premiere, September 8 on #DisneyPlus. 🧚🪄 pic.twitter.com/aNtGcNaTE1
Is the Ultimate Disney Bundle Coming?
Consolidation has been one of the biggest buzzwords in streaming recently as nearly every player in the game has been circling their collective wagons in order to bring all of their licensed content home and — in some cases — even combine multiple services into a single streamer.
While many assume that Disney will eventually bring Hulu and ESPN+ into the Disney+ fold, there are some logistical reasons why it might be difficult for the House of Mouse to fully merge all of its streaming products any time soon.
As of now, Comcast still owns one-third of Hulu, and while the conglomerate has begun moving the day-after-air rights of NBCUniversal content from the Disney-controlled streamer in favor of the fully in-house Peacock, unless Comcast sheds its 1/3 ownership, it might not be possible for Disney+ to fully absorb Hulu right now.
Also, Disney CEO Bob Chapek recently discussed the eventuality of a fully-featured service that brought all of ESPN’s content to one streaming home. While that is still likely years away, as the worldwide leader in sports still makes a ton of money on carriage fees from cable providers, it is obviously in Disney’s plans, so folding ESPN+ into Disney+ might not make sense at this point.
However, it does seem reasonable for Disney+ to introduce hubs for both Hulu and ESPN+ inside its existing platform. Hulu programming already lives in Disney+ internationally under the Star, Star+, or Hotstar banners internationally. So it is not out of the question for Disney’s other two streamers to show up in Disney+ as separate verticals, and what better day to announce this massive move than on Disney+ Day?
Disney+ (Deal) Day
Ahead of last year’s event, the service announced a special deal tied to Disney+ Day, in which new customers could subscribe for just $1.99 per month. So in addition to the ad-supported option, there very well could be another way to save on Disney+ coming up in a few months.
Additionally, at D23 2019, members were offered an incredible early adopter rate for Disney+. D23 members were able to secure three years of the streaming service for $153.66, or less than $4.27 per month. However, as the service approaches the third anniversary of its launch date on Nov. 12, Disney could look to offer another exciting deal for its biggest fans.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”