Disney’s “Adult” Streaming Service, Star, Is Coming To The UK

Star, Disney’s new “general entertainment” streaming service which caters to a more mature audience than Disney+, is coming to the UK (and Europe) on February 23, 2021. It will be an integral part of Disney+, accessed via the same app.

The Star section will include thousands of hours of content from Disney-owned brands, such as FX, ABC Studios and more, as well as brand new originals. 

And since the two Disney streaming services will now be packaged under the same subscription – the total cost is rising to £7.99/month or £79/year (But you can still subscribe at the old price, until February).

As we reported last August, Disney was planning to launch a streaming service with more adult-oriented content for a while, with Disney+ only featuring family-friendly content.

• Feb. 23 Update: Star is now LIVE in the UK. Here’s everything you need to know

Disney+ launched in the US back in November 2019, and then in the UK in March 2020. It’s a major competitor to Netflix and Prime Video (see our full Disney+ UK review), currently costing £5.99/month or £59.99 for a full year.

Disney+ offers TV shows and movies from the worlds of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic, therefore there was no room for more general-entertainment offers from the vast Disney-owned portfolio.

Yesterday, in Disney’s “Investor Day” presentation, it was revealed that the much-anticipated new service, Star, will not be a standalone service after all (in most of the world), but will instead be baked into Disney+ as a separate section.

Star won’t be available in the US – where Disney owns Hulu, which serves a similar function, featuring Disney’s mature properties.

In the past, Disney spoke of plans to expand Hulu internationally – but since it’s not a known brand outside the US, Disney has chosen to go with Star, which is quite similar to what Hulu is in the US.

Since Star will be a new “tile” under the existing Disney+ service, new parental controls will let parents block the Star section with a PIN code, for specific profiles, so children won’t have access to the more mature content.

What Can I Watch On Disney’s Star In The UK?

• January Update: Disney revealed some of Star’s launch titles.

The new service will be the “exclusive” streaming home for content from several general entertainment properties, including:

• Disney Television Studios
• Fox Television
• FX
• 20th Century Studios
• Freeform
• Searchlight

The shows will include comedies, dramas and thrillers, with Star also featuring original content, with over 35 first-run series set to premiere by the end of the first year.

In the UK, many existing Disney-owned shows already air on local channels (such as Sky and the BBC, which has a deal with FX) – so it remains to be seen whether some will air on Star and other places at the same time.

Eventually, however, Star will likely become the sole destination for these shows.

Some of the returning shows which are expected to come to Star in 2021 include:

• Seasons three and four of the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning comedy Atlanta

• Season 10 of American Horror Story
• Season 2 of Dave
• Season 3 of What We Do In The Shadows
• Season 3 of Mayans M.C. (the Sons of Anarchy sequel series)
• Four more seasons of the hit comedy It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Some of the new shows coming in the new year, that will end up on Star in the UK, include:

The Old Man

A TV series starring Academy Award and Golden Globe award-winner Jeff Bridges, as well as John Lithgow, and Amy Brenneman, is a new FX drama series where Bridges is a former CIA operative who is forced to reconcile with his past.

American Horror Stories

A new anthology series from Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning producer Ryan Murphy, spun off from FX’s biggest, longest-running original drama hit, American Horror Story.

Each episode will be a standalone self-contained story, with the first season consisting of 16 hour-long episodes. 

Y: The Last Man

A new FX drama series based on DC Comics’ acclaimed series of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.

Y: The Last Man traverses a post-apocalyptic world in which a cataclysmic event decimates every mammal with a Y chromosome but for one cisgender man and his pet monkey.

The series follows the survivors in this new world as they struggle with their efforts to restore what was lost and the opportunity to build something better.

The series stars Diane Lane, Ashley Romans, Ben Schnetzer, Olivia Thirlby, Amber Tamblyn, Marin Ireland, Diana Bang, Elliot
Fletcher and Juliana Canfield. 

Alien

The first television series based on one of the greatest science-fiction horror classics ever made, it’s the first Alien story set on Earth, not too far into our future.

Alien will be helmed by Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley stepping into the creator/executive producer chair, and FX is in advanced negotiations with Academy Award winner, Sir Ridley Scott – director of the first Alien film and the sequel, Alien: Covenant – to join the project as an Executive Producer.

Only Murders In The Building

The 10-episode series follows three strangers (played by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one.

Will We See ABC Shows On Star?

Many have hoped that content from ABC Studios, which is also owned by Disney (such as Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19), will also find its way to Star.

Last year, many of the ABC shows were removed as box-sets from Sky and NOW TV, with some returning for one-season only. In the US, ABC shows can be streamed on Hulu.

At this point, however, ABC hasn’t been mentioned as a content provider for Star in the UK, and Disney had no details to add when we approached them on the matter.

• Join Disney+ (With Star coming in February)