The Lucasfilm portion of the Disney Investor Day 2020 event brought about a lot of surprises. One of the briefly discussed, yet quite interesting Disney+ shows talked about was “The Acolyte”.
Intriguingly described as a “mystery-thriller”, “The Acolyte” could be the first Star Wars Disney+ series that focuses on a character on the Dark Side of the Force.
Leslye Headland brings a new @StarWars series to @DisneyPlus with The Acolyte. “The Acolyte” is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.
The creative team is being headed up by Leslye Headland, co-creator of Netflix’s series “Russian Doll”. No release date or additional info has been announced. However, if you want to learn more about the High Republic Era, check out Starwars.com
Exciting news released yesterday during Disney’s Investor Day event! Disney has announced that “Raya and The Last Dragon” will not only be arriving in theaters on March 5, 2021, but will also be available right at home via Disney+ Premier Access.
As shared by WhatsOnDisneyPlus: “Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when an evil force threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, that same evil has returned and it’s up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the legendary last dragon to restore the fractured land and its divided people. However, along her journey, she’ll learn that it’ll take more than a dragon to save the world—it’s going to take trust and teamwork as well.”
Disney did not announce what the cost for “Raya and the Last Dragon” will be on Disney+ Premier Access. We’ll keep you posted! In the meantime, check out the Official Teaser here”
The Mandalorian is now the first show from Disney+ to rank on Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming list. It made the list for the week of October 26, 2020, through November 1, 2020.
The Mandalorian is ranked at number three, behind The Queen’s Gambit and The Office on Netflix. In fact, the other nine shows on the list are from Netflix. The list is below.
Rank
SVOD Provider
Program Name
# of Episodes
Minutes (Millions)
1
Netflix
THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT (2020)
7
1,850
2
Netflix
THE OFFICE
192
1,046
3
Disney+
THE MANDALORIAN
9
1,032
4
Netflix
SCHITTS CREEK
80
963
5
Netflix
HOLIDATE (2020)
1
654
6
Netflix
GREYS ANATOMY
361
624
7
Netflix
CRIMINAL MINDS
277
620
8
Netflix
NCIS
353
552
9
Netflix
THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR
9
535
10
Netflix
GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW
63
Nielsen ranks streaming shows based on the number of minutes viewers are streaming each week. When it comes to platforms like Netflix that do not release streaming numbers, Neislen estimates. Nielsen includes Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+ in its streaming measurements.
The nine episodes of The Mandalorian available during that week (season 1 and the first episode of season 2) were streamed for 1,032 million minutes by viewers. It will likely remain in the top 10, and maybe even rank higher as Nielsen continues to rank the weeks during which a new episode aired. The final episode of this season will debut on December 18, 2020.
This exciting season of The Mandalorian has been chock full of both character and performer cameos. Most recently, Disney Legend Wing T. Chao appeared as Governor Wing.
Muppet Babies – It’s cute, colorful, and adventurous. Well, Disney is now experiencing some woes over this popular reboot as they are being sued for copyright infringement.
As shared by Deadline: “A new copyright infringement and fraud suit against The Walt Disney Company over Muppet Babies is no romp in the nursery. Veteran small screen scribe Jeffrey Scott filed a four-claim complaint in federal court Oct. 22. In the document, Scott alleges that ideas new and old for the Disney Junior and Disney Channel reboot that launched in 2018 were lifted from his work.”
“In 2015, Disney began the early stages of developing the new Muppet Babies show,” the October 22 filing says. “In early 2016, Disney executives met with Scott at their request, and he presented detailed ideas for the show’s updated structure, look and characters, and for new episodes, with the understanding on both sides that, if Disney used Scott’s ideas and produced new episodes, it would pay for Scott’s ideas and honor the commitments that Disney’s predecessor, Marvel, and Jim Henson, made to him,” the complaint continues. “A Disney executive then emailed Scott asking him to send Disney his ideas in writing, which Scott did.”
“Scott is informed and believes that, when Disney executives D’Ambrosia and Sapire solicited Scott’s ideas for a Muppet Babies reboot, they and their superiors at Disney knew, and concealed from Scott, that Disney had assembled or was assembling a production team for the reboot, and that they and their superiors had no intention of offering Scott an opportunity to work on the reboot or to pay him for his ideas, which they intended to use without complying with their obligations under the parties’ implied agreement,” the jury trial seeking filing states.”
Disney did not reply to Deadline’s request for comment.
“Music is all I think about. From the moment I wake up in the morning, to the moment I fall asleep at night,” says Joe Gardner, the middle-school teacher with a serious passion for jazz music who is at the center of Disney and Pixar’s Soul. Disney+ has debuted a brand-new trailer for the feature film, which is available exclusively on the streaming service beginning December 25, 2020. Check out the trailer and details below as shared by TheWaltDisneyCompany.
The story is particularly relatable to the artists behind it. For Jamie Foxx, who lends his voice to Joe, it begins with jazz. “Like Joe, I hear music in everything,” said Foxx. “When you’re a jazz artist, man, you talk a little different: ‘Hey, cat!’ I got a chance to go to a few jazz fests and meet Herbie Hancock, Chick Correa—hang out with those guys. They have a way of talking, a way of dressing—everything funnels toward their music, toward the jazz.”
Director Pete Docter shares Foxx’s love of music, but he conceived of the character before jazz entered the picture. “I’ve been so lucky to work with some incredible people and make movies that have been seen around the world,” he said. “But I realized that as wonderful as these projects are, there’s more to living than a singular passion—as expressive and fulfilling as that may be. Sometimes the small insignificant things are what it’s really about. This film is about broadening the idea of a singular focus to thinking more widely about what life has to offer and what we have to offer life.”
Likewise, co-director Kemp Powers, who initially joined the project as a writer, didn’t have to look far to find inspiration for Joe Gardner. “We’ve been working on Soul for years, but the film feels timelier now than we ever could have imagined back when we began,” he said. “In a year where everything we know has been turned upside down, we’ve all been forced to find new meaning both in the relationships we have and the small moments that truly make life worth living.”
In the film, Joe is on the brink of getting his big break playing for a jazz quartet. But he finds himself on an unexpected detour from the streets of New York City to The Great Before, tasked with helping new soul 22, voiced by Tina Fey, find her spark to earn her way to Earth. “He’s sure if he can share his life story with her—his passion for jazz—she’ll be inspired and they’ll both get to go to Earth,” said producer Dana Murray. “They do make it back to Earth, but that’s really the beginning of their adventure. It’s a funny and touching story of friendship and self-discovery, and we can’t wait to show it to the world.”
New details have also been released about Soul’s voice cast. Five-time BAFTA winner Graham Norton (The Graham Norton Show) revealed last weekend that he lends his voice to spiritual sign twirler Moonwind. The voice cast also includes Rachel House (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnaraok) as the count-obsessed Terry, and Alice Braga (Elysium), Richard Ayoade (The Mandalorian), Wes Studi (Woke, The Last of the Mohicans), Fortune Feimster (Bless the Harts) and Zenobia Shroff (The Affair) as the voices of the Counselors. Comedian Donnell Rawlings voices Joe’s barber Dez, and June Squibb (Nebraska) provides the voice of Gerel. They join Foxx, Fey, Phylicia Rashad, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Angela Bassett and Daveed Diggs.
Rated PG, Soul features jazz compositions and arrangements by globally renowned musician and Grammy® nominee Jon Batiste, and an original score by Oscar® winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network).
