The ongoing content purge being undertaken by almost every streaming service has been brutal – so much so that not even renewed shows with new seasons almost complete are safe – but Disney Plus may have just pulled the most ruthless move of them all by wiping Crater off the face of the planet.
Coming armed with a budget north of $50 million, director Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s sci-fi adventure followed a teenager preparing to be relocated to a faraway planet, only to decide against the idea in favor of recruiting his friends to hijack a rover and set out on a mission to fulfill his recently-passed father’s dying wish instead.
Reviews were generally solid across the board, but the almost complete lack of marketing campaign ensured that nobody really knew Crater was even a thing that existed, and as a result it endured a poor performance in terms of viewership. Even then, the Mouse House removing the film from the content library and erasing it from existence so soon after its debut is a cruel move, if not quite an entirely surprising one.
What makes it all the more shocking is that it only premiered on May 12, meaning Crater was available to Disney Plus subscribers for exactly seven weeks before the company decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle of keeping around anymore. The cosmic caper had a decent concept, a sizeable budget, and may have ultimately found life as an ongoing favorite, but unless somebody steps in to secure the distribution rights, there’s a distinct chance that nobody is going to be able to see it ever again.