Disney+ Big Announcements: Ewan McGregor, Lizzie McGuire, Ms. Marvel and More

Disney+ dropped major news during its debut on the D23 Expo stage on August 23, 2019. Along with premiering trailers from series debuting this year or early 2020, the soon-to-be-launched subscription service revealed six new previously unannounced shows.

“With less than three months until launch, Disney+ will soon entertain and inspire audiences of all ages for generations to come, and we’re excited to preview some of the amazing original content being created for the service exclusively from our world-class brands today at the D23 Expo,” stated Kevin Mayer, chairman, Direct-to-Consumer & International. “Storytelling is the cornerstone of The Walt Disney Company and we’re thrilled to unveil a new slate of original shows from the Star Wars and Marvel cinematic universes, along with popular television franchises set to return with all-new series streaming only on Disney+.”

New Disney+ Series Announcements:

  • Ewan McGregor will return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new untitled series from Lucasfilm.
  • Kevin Feige announced Marvel Studios is developing three new live-action series: Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight and She-Hulk, all derived from Marvel comics.
  • Hilary Duff will reprise the role she made famous in an all-new Lizzie McGuire series from Terri Minsky.
  • 40 years after leaving the swamp in his big screen debut in The Muppet Movie, Kermit the Frog is heading upstream with Miss Piggy, and the gang, bringing a new kind of mayhem and laughter to Disney+ with their first-ever unscripted short-form series, Muppets Now.
High School Music Series
A scene from ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ (Disney+/Fred Hayes)

The 2019 D23 event, held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, found talent from the slate of upcoming shows taking the stage to promote the launch of Disney’s version of Hulu and Netflix. Disney+ will be available beginning November 12th for $6.99 a month or $69.99 annually.

The D23 presentation included appearances by the cast of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Joshua Bassett, Olivia Rodrigo, Matt Cornett, Sofia Wylie, Julia Lester, Larry Saperstein, Dara Reneé, Frankie A. Rodriguez, Kate Reinders, and Mark St. Cyr. The 10 episode series is guided by showrunner Tim Federle and is “set at the real-life East High, where the original movie was filmed, and follows a group of students as they countdown to opening night of their school’s first-ever production of High School Musical.”

The Disney+ presentation revealed first looks at the live-action Lady and the Tramp; the holiday comedy, Noelle, starring Anna Kendrick and Billy Eichner; and the 12 episode National Geographic series The World According to Jeff Goldblum starring and hosted by Jeff Goldblum.


Series set to premiere on the subscription service in 2020 include Diary of a Female President starring Tess Romero and executive produced by Gina Rodriguez and the animated series Monsters at Work inspired by Monsters, Inc. and featuring the voices of Ben Feldman and Aisha Tyler.

Kathleen Kennedy confirmed the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will consist of 12 episodes arriving in 2020. Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex will all be featured in the upcoming season.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will arrive in 2020 with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprising their roles. The series will be set after the events of Avengers: Endgame and will feature Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter and Wyatt Russell as John Walker.

Avengers Vision and Wanda Maximoff are pairing up for Marvel Studios’ WandaVision debuting in 2021. Paul Bettany steps back into his Vision character and Elizabeth Olsen returns as Wanda. The 2021 series will also feature Kat Dennings and Randall Park reprising their characters from Thor and Ant-Man and The Wasp. The series will channel the tone of classic sitcoms while set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Per Disney+, WandaVision finds the “two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives who begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.”

Tom Hiddleston is confirmed to step back into the role of MCU fan favorite Loki for a series of the same name. Kate Herron is directing and Michael Waldron is on board as the head writer, with Disney+ aiming for a 2021 premiere. The series will be set after the events of Avengers: Endgame.

In other Star Wars news, Rogue One stars Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk are continuing their involvement with the sci-fi universe in the second Star Wars live-action series. According to Lucasfilm, the untitled series follows “Cassian Andor’s adventures as a rebel spy during the formative years of the Rebellion, before the events of A New Hope.”