What Will Happen To Disney XD

Hello there. This is SofiaBlythe2014. So, we all know the news right now. Many shows that started or were primarily run on Disney XD are moving to Disney Channel, including Ducktales (2017), Star Vs The Forces Of Evil, and Big City Greens. We also have two upcoming shows coming out in 2019 called Amphibia and The Owl House, respectively created by Gravity Falls crew members Matt Braly and Dana Terrace. This has had some people curious as to what will happen with Disney XD. This article isn’t mean to give a definitive answer, but I do think some things can be explained. We will go over a few ideas and expand on them a bit: Why The Channel Was Created, And Why Shows Moved, The Possible Effect Of Anne Sweeney Taking Over, Why Toon Disney Was Replaced With Disney XD, The Disney Streaming Service, and Marvel Animation Layoffs. Let’s begin.

Why The Channel Was Created, And Why Shows Moved: Let’s go to the afternoon of April 18, 1998. Toon Disney was launched with one main purpose, to showcase classic Disney cartoons, much like with Boomerang later on with Hanna Barbera and old Cartoon Network shows. They would also show some imported properties, like the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, Batman: The Animated Series, and Pinky And The Brain, among others. For the first few years, it turned pretty well. The main channel allowed its content to grow on both Disney Channel and ABC, which are readily available on more cable packages than Disney XD. Not long after its launch, the Timon And Pumbaa cartoon had its final episodes premiere on the channel, as did the Weekenders a few years later. The reasons both shows moved was due to how their original respective networks, CBS for the former and ABC for the latter, were going through retooling at the time. The year 2004 saw the launch of the Jetix block, an older skewing kids block for original shows, mostly action shows like WITCH, Yin Yang Yo, and Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go, as well as anime like Pucca. Reruns of action shows from other networks were also prominent at the time, like the aforementioned Batman: The Animated Series, Jackie Chan Adventures, and the HULK cartoon, among others. The most common reasons were either retools and/or low ratings.

The Possible Effect Of Anne Sweeney Taking Over: You’re probably wondering who Anne Sweeney is. She was the president of Disney for almost 20 years, from 1996-2014, before being replaced by Ben Sherwood. She was also the president of the Disney-ABC subsection starting in 2004. Prior to joining Disney, she worked at Nickelodeon and Fox in various producer and chairman positions. This is admittedly just a theory, and I’m not trying to stir controversy, but here’s what I gather. Many people don’t like Anne Sweeney due to how much more girl focused and less animation focused the main channel was with its emphasis on girl-centric shows and most of its animation moving to Disney XD starting around the time of Phineas And Ferb, and most of its original properties from there on there. There’s also the complaint on a heavier emphasis of the network’s preschool programming starting a little afterwards. A similar level of complaining was lodged towards the current Cartoon Network president, Christina Miller, given how many of its more comedic reboots and heavier emphasis on comedy over story turned many people off after she took over. In essence, it’s somewhat of a belief that a woman can’t properly run a network even though that’s not true. It’s just simply due to making some bad decisions. Generally speaking, the new rules for any network executive always take time to get into, meaning there's a transition period. With the new Network president, the company is slowly going in a different direction, one that recognizes why having shows on the main network is important.

Why Toon Disney Was Replaced With Disney XD: In the summer of 2008, Disney announced that Toon Disney would become Disney XD, and target older kids, mainly boys, ages 6-11, meaning slightly older than Toon Disney, but also slightly younger than the Jetix block. This was to compete with other networks, mainly Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, due to how they generally attract more viewers in the demographic. As for why the network became more boy oriented, the answer most likely lies in WITCH, a Jetix cartoon that came out in 2004, and was the only original girl-centric show on the network. Despite its general positive reception, more so when Greg Weisman took over as showrunner in season 2, the show was cancelled after two seasons. This was due to the low ratings of the cartoon, and how the creators of the original comics dealt with meddling that wasn’t satisfactory for them. When the channel officially became Disney XD in 2009, only 4 shows from the Toon Disney era initially remained: Recess, Gargoyles, The Legend Of Tarzan, and Phineas And Ferb, with Kim Possible and Lilo And Stitch having occasional encores midway into the 2010s. It seems like the failure of WITCH is partly what caused the network to be more boy oriented.

The Disney Streaming Service: It’s becoming obvious that television is becoming less prominent with the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. In order to counteract this, Disney is creating their own streaming service, which will be home to things like a Monsters Inc series, a new Muppet Show series, a High School Musical series, and various Star Wars and Marvel shows. Given that Disney Channel is slowly, but surely, becoming more gender neutral, and is for older kids, they’ll keep the Disney Junior block and channel to keep that younger kid counterbalance. The streaming service will most likely be for original older skewing kids shows, and shows based on their acquired properties like Marvel and Star Wars, as well as based on movies. This would most likely lessen Disney XD’s purpose outside of reruns.

Marvel Animation Layoffs: A few months, it was reported that many people involved with Marvel Animation are currently being let go, or at least, moving onto other projects. Big Hero 6 is the exception since Marvel cut itself off from the property, and let Disney produce it by themselves. Jeff Wamester, a director and storyboard artist for Guardians Of The Galaxy, has left Marvel Animation after 8 years to work at Warner Brothers Animation. Kevin Burke & Chris Doc Wyatt, who are Marvel mainstays with shows like Ultimate Spiderman, Avengers Assemble, Marvel’s Spiderman, and more, have their own show for Netflix called Stretch Armstrong And The Flex Fighters. An interesting thing about Marvel's SpiderMan is that they seem to have replaced Kevin Shinick as the showrunner for the season given that, in season 1, they were consulting producers, and season 2 promotes them to supervising producers and head writers, much like how they were in season 2 of Avengers Assemble before leaving to be producers for Ultimate Spiderman season 4. I mean, they co-wrote most of the multi-part episodes of the two Spiderman shows. Ever since Disney’s acquisition of the brand, all Marvel shows produced by them air on Disney XD due to its male demographic being key. The only exceptions are the Marvel Super Hero Adventure shorts, which are produced for the Disney Junior audience, the Phineas And Ferb: Mission Marvel crossover, and the Ultimate SpiderMan/Jessie crossover, both of which first aired on Disney Channel despite more reruns on Disney XD. We currently don’t know about any plans for Marvel cartoons other than that Avengers Assemble season 5 and Marvel’s Spiderman season 2 will air later in the year on the channel, as well as the Lego Black Panther special in the summer.

So, with all of this in mind, could Disney XD stay? There are a number of factors to consider. The Marvel and Star Wars shows give them their best ratings, yet with many shows either moving to the main network, or being announced for the network from the start, it makes the picture fuzzy. That's not even going into the anime they acquired, like Pokemon and Yo Kai Watch, due to how they've never aired on the main channel internationally. I’ll leave this up to you. What do you think will happen to Disney XD?



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