The Brilliance of Disney+ and the Interconnected Universe; Why Netflix Can’t Compete
on August 11th I watched the debut of Marvel’s What If…? and the multiversal story of Captain Carter, and that night I watched the entirety of Captain America: The First Avenger; This is the brilliance of Disney+ and the interconnected universe, and why no other streaming service can compare.
The battle of the streaming platforms has been one for the ages; with the COVID-19 pandemic taking its toll on the entire country during 2020, it seems as though we all learned to reimagine how we perceive consumption of our entertainment, and what is possible with modern technology.
Source: indiewire.com
Locked inside of our homes during a near nationwide shutdown, many of us turned to art; we escaped the inescapable reality of the pandemic through the characters and stories we knew and loved, and through characters and stories we were incredibly excited to meet.
Theaters were closed, studios were under pressure to constantly delay films, and productions stood still as the world caught up to a new normal; all the while, we learned to navigate streaming platforms and understand just how this new normal could be maximized.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 29: (L-R) Angélique Roché, Producer, President of Marvel Studios and Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Kevin Feige, EVP of Production at Marvel Studios Victoria Alonso, Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum, and Co-Producer Brian Chapek speak onstage at the Black Widow World Premiere Fan Event at Dolby Theatre on June 29, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
Disney, more so than any other company, conceptualized a streaming platform that wasn’t simply the most immersive and engaging, but that operated on such a level of familiarity and continuity, that they entered into a league of their own.
The prime example of how we can quantify the massive leap taken by the company is how Marvel Studios has bounced back from a year of unreleased projects collecting dust in production room desktops.
Photo: Jay Maidment
©Marvel Studios 2020
2021 has given Marvel fans Wandavision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and Loki; with the newest series, What If…?, becoming the next great Disney+ exclusive series grounded in the expansive and encompassing Marvel Cinematic Universe.
There lies the true incomparable reality of what the Walt Disney Company has created.
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If you consider Netflix’s incredibly popular series Umbrella Academy– a Superhero series that follows a family through time-traveling adventures- you find a series that reaches a similar audience to that of Marvel, or even Star Wars.
But what happens when the credits roll? If a Netflix subscriber finishes Umbrella Academy, the Netflix Algorithm will give the consumer options similar to the series; the service, however, loses the emotional engagement of that viewer.
Source: comicbook.com
This is the brilliance of Disney+ and the interconnected universe; no such problem exists.
If someone falls in love with The Mandalorian and watched both seasons of the series, Disney+ gives them the opportunity to return to the galaxy far far away.
They can watch the prequels, or the Orignal Trilogy, or Disney’s own sequel trilogy; they can consume the Dave Filoni helmed Clone Wars series, or his Rebels series, or even his brand new series, Bad Batch.
In the same way, If fans consume the debut episode of Marvel What If…?, their ability to return to the world they have invested in is not compromised; they are not limited by the amount of content.
Fans can watch any of the over 20 MCU feature films that have been produced over the last decade, they can consume ay of the three Marvel series that have been released just this year; they can even explore Marvel characters of the past through the earliest incarnations of the genre.
Disney+ gives fans a home they can always return to; a place where their favorite characters, their favorite stories, and their favorite worlds will always remain, and will never cease to be explored.
Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images
The brilliance of Disney+ and the interconnected universe is the ability to never have to leave.
