Disney CEO Bob Iger Says Star Wars Films Will Not be Made Exclusively for Disney+

Barron’s recently spoke to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who spoke at length on the company’s upcoming new premium streaming service, Disney+, and how the studio has no plans to launch or premiere new live-action Star Wars films on the service. Below are some highlights.

Bob Iger on the TV front and not making a Star Wars show for ABC: “”Almost every movie the studio makes is a $100 million-plus movie, and we’re not looking to make movies at that level for the service. We’re looking to invest significantly in television series on a per-episode business, and we’re looking to make movies that are higher budget, but nothing like that. We wouldn’t make a Star Wars movie for this platform. When everybody goes out on the weekend and you have a movie that opens up to $200 million, there’s a buzz that creates that enhances value. We like that. And eventually the movies we’re making are going to [end up on] the service.”

Bob Iger on the TV front and not making a Star Wars series for ABC: “On the television front, we’re kind of at capacity in certain cases. Like the Disney Channel has been at capacity in terms of the number of shows that it buys, and we believed that there was room for the team to start developing other Disney-branded television shows for the service without depriving them of the pipeline that they need for their channels. We’re also making a Marvel series and a Star Wars series.”

“I guess we could have made the Star Wars series for ABC if we wanted. But the budget and what we’re spending on it and the nature of the material suggested it would be a perfect anchor for the new service. Because it’s a priority for the company, that needs to be reflected in the trafficking or the direction of where a lot of content goes. There have to be some subjective decisions made on where stuff goes because we have to feed this new beast.”