windom

Canceled: https://deadline.com/2023/03/willow-...-2-1235300401/

whotony

That stinks

kefrank

I recently finished this and agree with the general consensus here. It was pretty middling and didn't manage to rekindle the magic that my 10-year-old self found in the original movie. It committed one of the cardinal sins of lazy sci-fi/fantasy writing which is dialog that includes some variation of the phrase, "Forget everything you think you know." That always elicits an eye-roll from me. The finale also suffered from a common issue with sci-fi/fantasy: the power and danger of the "magic lightning" used in the final battle was unclear and not well-established, so the dramatic tension of the fight was somewhat ambiguous.

I'm not terribly surprised this isn't getting a second season.

Neil M.

I'm a little surprised given the teaser at the end but things probably changed once Iger stepped back into the picture.

Dr. DVD

I would agree if the series didn't also stink for the most part. Like I said, some of it was good, but very little, and the showrunners seemed to think of the original movie as a joke. I know Jake Kasdan says otherwise, but he strikes me as the kind of guy who laughed at the original and thought the fans were nerds from what I've seen of his interviews.

whotony

I never liked the movie.

B.A.

Damnit

fujishig

So not technically cancelled, and they've actually written out a volume 2, but they aren't planning to film in the next 12 months so they released all the actors. Having said that it's probably a long shot to get picked up again with no commitment unless things drastically change in the streaming world/Disney so I wouldn't necessarily get your hopes up, but still better news than yesterday.

Goldberg74

I could take it or leave it. I was pretty meh about it after the first two episodes.

Dr. DVD

Then that explains why you would like this show.

joe_b

The series (along with a few dozen exclusive titles) will be removed from Disney+ on May 26 as a "cost-cutting measure". Any subscribers who still wanted to watch it should binge it within the next week.

https://www.ign.com/articles/willow-...ng-disney-plus

windom

So chances for volume 2 not looking so good?

candyrocket786

Disney cutting everything 😆

Star Cruiser, D+ content and Lake Nona. Christ, next you'll hear that Star Wars is for sale. 🤣

This is what happens when you produce crap content no one watches. You lose $$$$

The Antipodean

Can someone explain how a series they’ve already paid to produce being removed less than a year after it debuted SAVES money? I know there must be SOME ongoing costs to keep it streaming but honestly can’t see how that would amount to much….

fujishig

Someone in the other thread said it was a big tax write off but I thought the HBO max thing was a one time thing due to the company being sold so I’m not sure. It seems ridiculous to me and probably a provision that should be looked at.

joe_b

From my understanding, it has something to do with avoiding residual payments and claiming a tax write-off.

Quote from a Yahoo Finance article:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/willow-jeff-goldblum-titles-151503676.html

TheBang

I'm not an accountant, but as I understand it, normally they are amortizing something or other over a long period of time. Instead, they are going to yank it now, and write it off as loss (content impairment charge) against their tax bill now.

The HBO Max write-offs were slightly different in that, because of special rules because of the merger, for a limited period of time, they were able to write-off the entire cost of the stuff they cancelled, which is not the case for Disney+.

Toddarino

Since this is getting yanked, I decided to finally watch it. I’m only on episode three and I’m not liking it all that much. I think the most glaring thing is the costumes. Everything looks to clean for lack of a better word. It all looks kinda cheap too.

Josh-da-man

We can hope that they've figured out that they just can't churn out a bunch of shit with the Marvel or Lucasfilm logo on it and expect everyone to love it. But I wouldn't take that bet.

Josh-da-man

Streaming is a whole new distribution model where nobody is actually buying anything outside of a fixed, recurring monthly fee. Once they've put up the money for content and produced it, the only way to measure its success is in new and retained subscriptions. There is no box office take and no Nielsen ratings to attract advertisers.

With the WGA out on picket lines demanding more residuals from streaming content, I suspect that yanking things completely from services will be more and more commonplace. Keeping canceled/finished series on these services is only going to drain money. At this point, something like Willow isn't going to attract or retain any subscribers, and they'll only be paying out residuals on something that isn't bringing in any actual revenue.

Makes me wonder if, once the strike dust has settled, if we'll see more and more streaming series ending up on Tubi or basic cable where they can pay out residuals once their profitability to the streaming services has ended.

kefrank

The tragedy of this dynamic is that some very quality shows or shows with potential cult followings will just be lost in the wind, because these decisions will be based strictly on the cold financial realities of the narrow subscription streaming model. When these shows are removed from a streaming service, they should immediately be released for rent or purchase on VUDU, AppleTV, etc so that they are at least accessible. But I doubt they will be.

I wouldn't count on basic cable to be a player, given that its whole business model is dying.

fujishig

If it doesn't cost them money to just list them I don't see why these wouldn't be on digital(I can understand no physical release). They weren't put on digital originally because they were supposed to entice you to subscribe but now that that's gone, I see no reason for them to hold off on them... if the residuals are high price them high.

Unless the "free" streaming deals come with some kind of caveat of no other release or something, because that is surely where these are being dumped (if it truly is just residuals and not a tax thing)

dex14

Gizmo

So for streaming shows, residuals are based off SUBSCRIBERS count and not view COUNT. So the residuals for this show might be high due to the talent when no one is watching. Disney can now 'sell' this off to a FAST or other steamer, make some money, and have residuals paid by the new streamer. If this show doesn't drive subscriber count, or no one is watching, why pay to keep it around? I think Zaslav said 80% of the content people are watching on HBO MAX is. the top 20 shows. Some shows received 0 views over the course of a year but still had to pay out residuals to keep it on the service. How stupid is that?

Gizmo

We'll see a lot more titles removed and either sold off to FAST/other streamers, or just gone altogether. Physical media won't move the needle for 99% of shows (ok, sure, Mandalorian and some of the Marvel stuff would sell well, but Disney isn't concerned with those shows).

Once the strike dust settles, we will overall see less scripted shows and heavily reduced episode counts because of the money the studios will have to pay out to the writers based upon whatever they eventually agree to.