Disney Is Saying Goodbye to Marvel and Star Wars’ Most Divisive Era

Published Aug 6, 2026, 7:46 AM EDT Hannah has been writing about horror, sci-fi, and all things nerdy since 2021. At Collider, she covers news and conducts interviews, along with contributing features that dive deep into genre storytelling and why it works. If there’s something lurking in the shadows, she’s probably already writing about it if she's not too busy watching a tape from her VHS collection. For a while, Disney treated streaming as the future of blockbuster storytelling. If you wanted to understand where the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars were headed next, you couldn't just buy a movie ticket anymore. You needed a Disney+ subscription, a growing amount of free time, and the willingness to keep up with an expanding slate of interconnected television series that led into movies. At first, it felt revolutionary. Marvel's biggest stars suddenly had room for stories that never could have fit inside a two-hour movie, while Star Wars began exploring corners of its galaxy that had rarely received live-action attention. For a while, it worked. Now, it feels like that experiment is ending after years of arguably giving fans too much. The cancellation of Wonder Man may be the clearest sign yet that Disney is finally moving away from the strategy that defined both Marvel and Star Wars throughout the Disney+ era. Instead of asking audiences to follow a constant stream of interconnected shows, the company appears to be returning its attention to what built both franchises in the first place: movies. At this point in time, the pivot is a welcome one. Disney+ Changed Marvel and Star Wars Forever, for Better and Worse Image via Disney+ It's important to remember just how exciting Disney+'s launch felt (aside from being yet another streamer to subscribe to). Marvel debuted with WandaVision, a genuinely bold experiment that used sitcom history to explore grief in ways a Marvel movie never could, demonstrating they didn't intend to ease audiences in. Loki expanded the MCU's mythology while introducing the Multiverse Saga's biggest concepts, and Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief arguably became a richer character than he ever had on the big screen. Star Wars experienced a similarly transformative moment with The Mandalorian. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu became cultural phenomena almost overnight, proving the galaxy far, far away could thrive outside the Skywalker Saga. Later, Andor raised the bar even higher, delivering one of the franchise's most mature, politically charged stories to date. These weren't side adventures. They were some of the strongest projects either franchise had produced in years. The problem wasn't quality. The problem was quantity. Once Disney committed to feeding its streaming service, Marvel and Star Wars stopped feeling like occasional events and started feeling like ongoing obligations. Every year brought another wave of interconnected series, each introducing new characters, expanding mythology, or laying groundwork for future stories. Marvel alone released The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion, Echo, Agatha All Along, Ironheart, and more in rapid succession. Star Wars followed with The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew, and additional seasons of existing shows, and supplemental material like Visions. Some were excellent, and some were deeply divisive, to say the least. Collectively, they created a problem neither franchise had faced before. The MCU Started Feeling Like Homework Marvel fans coined the phrase years ago, but it only became more accurate over time. Keeping up with the MCU started feeling like homework. A character could disappear from theaters for years before reappearing after eight episodes of television. Emotional beats established on Disney+ suddenly mattered in theatrical releases, while new heroes were introduced across shows that many casual audiences never watched. For dedicated fans, that interconnected storytelling remained part of the appeal, but for everyone else, it became exhausting. The MCU had always rewarded investment, but it started to demand it. Star Wars wasn't quite as interconnected, but it encountered a different version of the same problem: Disney+ transformed the franchise into a constant presence rather than an event. New series arrived every few months, and while Andor earned widespread acclaim, projects like The Book of Boba Fett and The Acolyte sharply divided audiences for very different reasons. Instead of every release feeling essential, many began competing with one another for attention. Oversaturated became a word synonymous with Star Wars and Marvel for a while. Disney's Future Is Starting To Look Much Simpler Image via Marvel Studios That makes the current slate especially telling since Wonder Man will no longer move forward, leaving Marvel with remarkably few live-action television projects still standing. What remains are series that were already in motion before Disney began tightening its spending and restructuring Marvel Television: VisionQuest, Daredevil: Born Again Season 3, and Ahsoka Season 2 on the Star Wars side, all projects that feel like the conclusion of a streaming wave. Meanwhile, Disney's biggest investments are once again theatrical. Marvel's future revolves around Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, movies designed to reunite audiences for massive shared cinematic events. Spider-Man continues to anchor the street-level corner of the MCU on the big screen with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, while the X-Men are finally beginning to emerge as Marvel Studios' next major theatrical priority. Star Wars is following the same blueprint. Rather than announcing endless Disney+ expansions, Lucasfilm's attention has shifted toward movies like Star Wars: Starfighter, signaling that theatrical releases are once again expected to define the franchise's future, with several more big screen projects on the way. This doesn't mean Disney+ is disappearing from either universe, but television is no longer carrying the weight of both, and honestly, that's probably healthier for everyone involved. Streaming gave Marvel and Star Wars some of their best stories in years and demonstrated that serialized storytelling could reveal sides of these universes movies simply couldn't. Those successes shouldn't be forgotten because the strategy eventually stretched too far, but audiences don't need multiple interconnected franchise shows every year to stay invested, they need stories worth tuning in for. For Disney, the biggest lesson of the Disney+ era may be that scarcity still creates excitement. Star Wars