When it comes to new streaming services, original content has become the key selling point to luring in subscribers. But when you’re a company as massive as Disney, you can afford to just buy all of the known IP. They have Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and all of their classic animated films at your fingertips. As such, having just one original show – The Mandalorian – at launch probably wasn’t a major concern for them.
In the case of Marvel, Disney Plus has been slowly acquiring MCU titles. Netflix has always had a deal to stream MCU movies, which is why even after the Mouse House entered the streaming game, stuff like Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp were still on Netflix because the licensing contract hadn’t expired yet.
But now you won’t find any MCU pics on Netflix as Disney Plus currently has all but three entries in the cinematic universe on their streaming platform. What three are missing you might ask? Well, that’d be The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
The Spider-Man films make sense because Sony Pictures owns the rights to the character and the distribution. And you may never see the standalone movies on Disney Plus because it’s the biggest property Sony has going. They used to be able to bank on Adam Sandler and Will Smith, but movie stars no longer sell tickets – superheroes do. So, unless Tom Holland can get in a room with the two studios again and work his magic, you’ll have to settle for animated Spider-Man on Disney Plus.
Hulk not being there is a little more interesting, though. The reason we haven’t seen a standalone Hulk pic in more than a decade is because Universal has owned the rights for many years. Disney‘s reportedly acquired them now, but that doesn’t mean they own the distribution rights to The Incredible Hulk. It’s always been kind of the black sheep of the MCU anyway, so its exclusion is somewhat appropriate. Still, it’s got to bother the Mouse House that they can’t complete the collection and continue their goal of movie world domination.