It would appear that Disney Plus is going to enact some pretty strict quality control on what it shows to consumers. The upcoming Book of Enchantment series, based on the Villains series of books by Serena Valentino, has had the plug pulled 13 weeks into the writing process.
Book of Enchantment was deep into preproduction after nearly a year of work. Location scouting was underway, budgets were being set, and filming had a tentative start date of May 2020 in the U.K. What went wrong, according to Deadline, was that the scripts that had been turned in were darker in tone than the Disney Plus executives were comfortable with.
While Disney Plus has a lot in the works, and Star Wars The Mandalorian possibly prepping for a season 2 shoot already, Book of Enchantment was going to deal with some very precious characters. If you’re going to bring in characters such as Ursula and Maleficent to a story that would cause them to intersect, then it has to be top-notch.
According to source, the decision was a mutual decision by Disney Plus and production company ABC Signature. There was reportedly an effort last month to course correct, but it was just too far down the darker road. And in that the budget was reportedly very high, and the plug was just finally pulled.
Disney Plus will certainly not be lacking in content as it has multiple Star Wars and Marvel series in the works as well as shows based on Disney properties such as High School Musical. There was sure to be one that didn’t work.
Disney Plus will launch on Nov. 12.
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