For many streaming services, the wake-up call to post-pandemic reality has been jarring, with subscribers failing while those who remain are increasingly being forced to pay more. Even seemingly immovable giants like Disney have had to feel the knife burning against the larynx and with a loss of over ten million subscribers in the last quarter alone, as well as a series of extremely costly flops, the measures have been sweeping and swift from the boss Bob Iger.
Dismissed staff, increased subscription prices, tighter control over account sharing and series that are scrapped or withdrawn altogether. It has become the new everyday life. The nostalgia-scented Willow on Disney+ was probably one of the company’s biggest blunders, but it’s only now that it’s actually been revealed how much the series cost them, and it’s not a small amount in truth. Because according to Forbes, it is about eleven billion kroner that has been flushed straight down the toilet.
A violent mistake and something that neither audience nor critics ever picked up on. Stranger Things and 80s nostalgia in all its glory, but Warwick Davis, who has come of age, was clearly not enough of a draw for the Willow series, which Disney right now probably wishes it could conjure out of the history books.
What did you think of Willow?