Disney (DIS) has decided that it’s fine with some marvelous violence, as long as it can help parents block it from their kids.
Last month news broke that the series Marvel developed in conjunction with Netflix (NFLX) would be leaving the streaming giant at the end of February, as Netflix’s rights expired a few years after all the series were canceled following the dissolution of the partnership.
Now, “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “The Punisher” and “The Defenders,” miniseries will be available on Disney+ starting on March 16 in U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Disney has confirmed they will be available in all other Disney+ markets later this year.
Additionally, all seven seasons of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” which originally ran on the Disney-owned ABC, will also be available.
The Netflix shows were designed to be a touch more grounded than the “Captain America” and “Thor” films, as these were street-level heroes more concerned with fighting crime than saving the world. (Though that happened sometimes, as well.) These shows were also a good deal more violent than the Marvel films, filled with people getting their bones broken, stabbed and in one instance, decapitated in a car door.
The heroes often sometimes, uh, hook-up, which is generally not something that happens in the rather chase Marvel films.
So to make sure that young Marvel fans scrolling through the many kid-friendly cartoons on the Disney service don’t stumble upon something a bit too adult for them, Disney will be introducing a number of safe guard to help parents out.
Image source: TheStreet.
What Precautions Are Disney Adding?
On the day of the show’s premiere, Disney+ will update its parental control settings, which will include an option to select content ratings restrictions for each profile, and to add a PIN to lock profiles. You will also be able to restrict titles by content rating.
Users may have to double-check their settings to make sure they can access them, and they can choose to remain within a TV-14 content rating, with the option to make changes later under the profile settings tab.
This is not the first time Disney has made moves to help nervous parents out.
In 2020, a year after the service premiered, Disney+ added content warnings to films such as “Dumbo” and “Aladdin” that warned about scenes that included “negative depictions” and “mistreatment of people or cultures,” with a 12-second disclaimer telling viewers “These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
Image source: TheStreet.
Is Disney+ Growing Up?
It’s unclear if Disney will use the content restrictions as license to add more Marvel and Star Wars shows that push the envelope a bit, and if an ultra-gritty reboot of "The Muppets Show" where Kermit finally snaps and beats Fozzie Bear to a bloody pulp is in the offering.
Or perhaps, Disney will still use Hulu for its edgier content, and this was a one-off move Disney took in order to make sure as much of its valuable Marvel content was in one place as possible, minus the Tom Holland “Spider-Man” films which are produced with Sony.
Marvel’s next Disney+ show is “Moon Knight,” which Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has said will be “loud and brutal,” and which features the titular hero, played by Oscar Isaac, absolutely pummeling a werewolf in the trailer, so we’ll see if it rises to the standards set by the infamous hallway fights of “Daredevil.”
Speaking of which, plenty of fans would be thrilled if this all led to another season of that on Disney+.
