Disney+ Has a New Star Platform and Pricing – Here’s What’s Hitting Australia

Disney+ Has a New Star Platform and Pricing – Here’s What’s Hitting Australia
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Disney announced a lot of new things at its Investor Day presentation in December. One of those things was the answer to Australia’s Hulu prayers – a new brand called Star.

The new hub on Disney+ conglomerates a whole bunch of new and existing content from various studios and, yes, it comes with a price hike as well. Here’s what Aussies need to know about Star when it launches on February 23.

What is Star?

Star is a new brand being launched internationally, that brings together Disney’s content from Disney Television, FX, 20th Century Studios and Television (previously Fox), Touchstone, ESPN, and more, depending on the region. There will also be over 35 first-run series just from Star on Disney+ before the end of next year.

The brand exists as a base for some of the more mature content from Disney’s many brands. Some of the content that will be coming to Star that was shown includes existing titles like Kingsman, Stumptown and Logan. Previously, most of these titles have been either unavailable in Australia or scattered around various streaming services, but Star will bring it all to Disney+.

New series coming to Star in the future that have been announced include:

  • The Kardashian Jenners
  • Only Murders in the Building (with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez)
  • The Dropout (with Kate McKinnon)
  • Dopesick (starring Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson and Peter Sarsgaard)
  • The Old Man (starring Jeff Bridges)
  • American Horror Stories – a spinoff of the successful American Horror Story series.
  • Reservation Dogs (from Taika Waititi)
  • Y: The Last Man (an adaptation of the graphic novel)

Star will be serving as Disney+’s alternative to Hulu, which can be bundled together as a streaming package in the US. It will launch in Canada, New Zealand, UK, Singapore and a bunch of countries across Europe. And, of course, here in Australia.

What content will be on Star at launch?

Disney has announced that Star will have 450 movies and 155 TV shows at launch in Australia.

This includes highlights like Alias, Desperate Housewives, Bob’s Burgers, black-ish and award-winning movies such as Titanic, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Disney+ will also be home to four ‘Star Originals’ which are:

  • Big Sky – a crime thriller from David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies)
  • Love, Victor – a TV spinoff of the young adult film Love, Simon.
  • Solar Opposites – an adult animated sitcom.
  • Helstrom – a drama series based on the Marvel comics characters.

You can see a full list of titles coming to Star here.

Star: When, where, and how much?

Star will be launching as a new hub on Disney+ on February 23rd, 2021. It will not require a separate subscription but will subsequently raise the price of Disney+.

The new pricing for Disney+ (from February 23rd) will be:

  • Monthly subscription: $11.99
  • Annual subscription: $119.99

This is up from the current price of $8.99 per month or $89 for a yearly subscription in Australia.

However, for those with an existing Disney+ subscription prior to February 23, Disney will be honouring these original prices for 6 months with the new price hike taking effect on the next monthly or annual renewal date following 22 August 2021.

So, is it worth these few extra dollars each month? Considering the 600+ titles that are about to hit the Star library and the amount of epic new Marvel, Star Wars and Disney branded content that the company recently announced, you’ll want to keep up this subscription.

You can start streaming Disney+ right here.

This article has been updated with additional information.


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At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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