According to What’s on Disney Plus, “Crater” was among a number of titles removed at the end of June, most of them Turkish originals like the feature comedy “My Apologies” and thriller series “Ben Gri.” Other victims include the 2022 Disney+ original documentary “More Than Robots,” which follows a group of teens preparing for the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition and was directed by Gillian Jacobs. Britta just can’t catch a break.
This is a smaller purge than when Disney brought in the scythes at the end of May, cutting more than a hundred titles including the big-budget fantasy sequel series “Willow,” which followed on from the beloved 1988 Lucasfilm adventure and saw Warwick Davis reprising the titular role. “Willow” was removed from Disney+ less than six months after it premiered, and while it’s possible that Disney might license the series to another streaming or VOD service in the future, for now it’s not available to watch legally anywhere. Not even physical media hoarding can help with this one; the show has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray.
Disney+ was originally pitched as everything Disney under one roof, but after losing 4 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023, the company is rethinking that. As chief financial officer Christine McCarthy put it, Disney is “reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation.” Translation: if the Algorithm says it’s not driving subscribers, it’s on the chopping block.
Of course, one could argue that purging titles from the Disney+ library without warning every month isn’t going to help win back any lost subscribers, or win new ones either.