
Disney+ is struggling. The streaming service has been operating at a financial loss that is partially responsible for the ousting of former CEO Bob Chapek. The service was supposed to revolutionize how we view Disney content, instead it’s created a major hurdle for Disney to overcome. Considering they are desperate to turn the platform into a money maker, they’ve done something that we just can’t wrap our brains around.
Marvel is one of the most popular content drivers on Disney+. People can’t seem to get enough of the Wanda Vision, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Panther, or the Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s why it doesn’t make any sense to us that Disney would’ve pulled any Marvel content off the platform with no warning.
Marvel Studios: Assembled is a behind-the-scenes look at the series and movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Loki.” Many die hard Marvel fans loved the docuseries for its indepth behind the scenes look at their favorite Marvel projects. Sadly, Disney has just quietly removed 6 episodes of the series without explanation. Here are the episodes that are now missing:
- WandaVision
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Loki
- Black Widow
- What If…?
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Why would they do this when Marvel is their greatest hope to turn Disney+ into a reliable revenue stream? It could be that they deemed the episodes as old and rotated them out, much like Netflix often does. They could also be testing a new strategy of creating artificial scarcity to encourage more viewers in larger numbers rather than a smattering of viewers here and there. With Disney+ Basic, the services new ad-supported tier this seems to make sense. “Watch now and help us get ad money in bulk or don’t watch at all”
Time will tell whether these episodes return or if the Walt Disney Company will continue to pull content off of the platform. That seems like a risky strategy considering CEO Bob Iger recently said they would be producing less content for the platform.