It was reported by Variety that the Disney hit Star Wars: The Force Awakens is bound to land on Starz platforms later this year. This would include the standard Starz channels, the Starz app and the subscription of Starz through Amazon Prime.
It was Starz CEO Chris Albrecht who said, “We want to make the movie as accessible as the fans’ appetites for what is truly one of the greatest franchises of all time.”
The Force Awakens begins thirty years after the demise of Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, only now to be faced with the threat of his grandchild Kylo Ren, who happens to be the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia. The story follows Rey and Finn as they join forces with Solo and Chewy. Their objective is to get very important information, which contains the location of Luke Skywalker, to The Resistance.
Unfortunately, the news of The Force Awakens isn’t all good news for the customers of Starz. It turns out that The Force Awakens is actually the last Disney movie Starz will get the rights to due to their agreement to end their partnership in light of Disney joining forces with Netflix.
Disney and Starz’s deal technically ended in 2012, when Netflix acquired the rights to future Disney films. The deal stated that Disney movies premiering after the end of 2015 would go straight to Netflix instead of any other subscription service.
So starting this September, Netflix will be the exclusive provider of Disney movies from Pixar, Marvel and LucasFilm. Films such as Zootopia, Finding Dory, Frozen, the highly anticipated standalone Star Wars: Rogue One and possibly even classic Disney movies. This means that while we are able to stream new Disney movies shortly after their run in theaters, we may be able to watch classic favorites like Beauty and The Beast, The Lion King, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.
There is some good news for Starz however, Starz will be able to continue to run the current Disney movies they already have rights to until the end of 2017.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Are you excited it’s coming to Starz or are you excited for more Disney on Netflix?
Let us know in the comments.