The Mandalorian was designed to launch Disney Plus with a bang, and it certainly did that, providing a far superior Star Wars experience to its big screen cousin The Rise of Skywalker. I adored its Western and samurai-inspired aesthetic, beautiful cinematography, awesome cast and, of course, everyone’s favorite pint-size puppet Baby Yoda. The finale of the first season didn’t disappoint either, setting us up for an epic adventure that I hope will continue in the same vein as what we’ve already seen.
So, all celebrations at Disney HQ, right? Well, not exactly. The Mandalorian was their flagship exclusive, but they don’t have much in the near future to follow it up with. There isn’t anything remotely as exciting as it for a while yet, with the next major show being The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. That doesn’t have a set release date right now, but we’re expecting it in Fall 2020. And if you’re solely a Star Wars fan, things aren’t any better, as season 2 of The Mandalorian will also land in Fall 2020, with shows like Obi-Wan probably not turning up until 2021.
Based on this, fans are cancelling their Disney Plus subscriptions en masse, as evidenced by the Tweets below:
#Humor – What made you cancel Disney+? #ThisIsTheWay #Mandalorian https://t.co/XoWgukYvGo pic.twitter.com/TSPYrPBuiJ
— El Bruno 🇨🇦 💙 💜 🎗️ (@elbruno) December 29, 2019
Is there anything worth watching on disney + other then Mandalorian….ima bout to cancel this bitch.
— inf1ntlysubl1me (@inf1ntlysubl1m1) December 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/EzraParter/status/1211519396885102592
https://twitter.com/babyyodaisagod/status/1211661442405019648
https://twitter.com/Browntable_Ent/status/1211373627536498688
I’m probably going to do the free trial of Disney+ so I can binge Mandalorian and then cancel. Does that make me even cooler? 😂
— 𝕯𝖆𝖛𝖎𝖉 𝕷𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖉 (@davidlangford73) December 30, 2019
“Im gonna to cancel Disney+ now that Mandalorian is over”. -the new look at me I’m too cool for the room quote
— That Junkman (@ThatJunkman) December 30, 2019
This points to a weakness for Disney in their bid to be the biggest streaming service. Netflix has a busy pipeline of new releases, with every week seeing something fresh and exciting arrive on the service. Meanwhile, Disney Plus looks to have stalled a little when it comes to exclusives, and is relying on subscribers staying tuned for blockbuster movies they’ll probably have already seen in theaters and their impressive legacy collection. But while having access to Disney’s back catalogue is a big selling point, you still need exclusives to keep subscribers on the hook.
Either way, none of the streaming giants are going to go down without a fight, so here’s hoping we get some more dazzling shows like The Mandalorian as they attempt to one-up each other.