Netflix signed a landmark deal with The Walt Disney Company last year which has seen some of the hottest properties in film and television land exclusively on the unstoppable red streaming giant. Disney owns the rights to many of the most popular franchises from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Star Wars universe, Pixar, and of course original properties from Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney animation. While many big-name Disney films have become some of the most-watched films in Netflix’s catalog, Netflix’s Disney offerings got a huge boost today thanks to the eagerly-awaited release of one of the hottest films of 2016: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Rogue One has now become the first Star Wars film to stream on Netflix, and the second Star Wars property after the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series. Rogue One follows Jyn Erso, daughter of the creator of the Death Star from the original Star Wars trilogy. After her father is kidnapped by the Empire and her mother killed, Jyn goes into hiding with the Rebel alliance. The events of the film directly precede Star Wars: A New Hope, and the last scene of Rogue One is an immediate prologue to A New Hope’s opening scene. For Star Wars fans, the film provides a long-awaited glimpse at the events which set the original trilogy in motion.
Rogue One was the second highest-grossing film of 2016, grossing over $1 billion worldwide and becoming the 22nd overall highest grossing film of all time. Thanks to its stunning and true-to-canon special effects, the film received two Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Mixing.
Aside from Rogue One, Netflix is currently the exclusive home to recent Disney releases like Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Moana, Finding Dory, and the new live action The Jungle Book. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will debut later this year, but for some odd reason there are no plans to bring Star Wars: The Force Awakens to Netflix for streaming. You can’t win them all.
