Disney Plus may have recently passed 50 million subscribers worldwide, but the streaming service is going to need to ramp up production on original content in order to mount a sustained challenge to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime in the years to come. Customers may have access to the overwhelming majority of the Mouse House’s back catalogue, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pixar, Star Wars and The Simpsons, but there’s only so far that pre-existing movies and TV shows will get you before people start wanting something new.
One avenue is for the studio to further monetize their incredibly lucrative series of live-action remakes, which is already being explored following the announcement of a Beauty and the Beast prequel show that focuses on Gaston and LeFou. And now we’ve heard that another one of Disney’s recent re-imaginings is also set to receive a small screen spinoff. And it’s one that fans should definitely be happy about.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us Bambi and Robin Hood remakes were in development, both of which are now confirmed –Â The Lion King‘s Timon and Pumbaa are reportedly set to be the stars of their own Disney Plus limited series, which is said to be a more comedic offering that could potentially take several cues from 2004’s direct-to-video The Lion King 1.5, which tracked what the duo were up to before and during the events of the movie.
The original Lion King made $968.5 million at the box office and Favreau’s update brought in $1.65 billion, so there’s obviously money to be made from further adventures set in this world, seeing as two entirely different generations of moviegoers have embraced the characters to the tune of over $2.5 billion. And with Lady and the Tramp recently released and Bambi, Robin Hood and an Aladdin sequel on the way, too, Disney seem content to cannibalize their own back catalogue with remakes, reboots, sequels and spinoffs until they run out of material to do so with.
