Disney To Make Four Marvel Shows for Hulu
By Even as Disney’s relationship with Netflix wanes, its investment in Hulu grows. CNBC reported today that Hulu is picking up four animated Marvel series from Disney, an announcement that comes just months after Netflix cancelled the Marvel series’ “Iron Fist”, “Luke Cage”, and “Daredevil”. The shows, which are comedic in tone and intended for adult audiences, reflect the growing importance of animated content for streaming services like Hulu. In recent years, animated shows have become increasingly popular for both adult and family audiences.
Disney is also about to become Hulu’s majority owner. When the studio completes its purchase of Fox’s assets, it will increase its stake in the streaming service from 30% to 60%. (NBCU and WarnerMedia will continue to retain 30% and 10%, respectively.) Though Marvel has a few television shows on Disney-owned and soon-to-be-owned networks including ABC, Freeform, and FX, Disney+ is intended to be the primary home of Marvel’s catalog of films and an upcoming slate of original series.
But Disney has indicated it will invest more in programming on Hulu, using the resources of the combined Disney-Fox. The four-show deal with Hulu is clearly a sign of that investment push.
