Since its launch in March 2020, Disney Plus UK’s enticing combination of Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and a vast archive of animated and live-action movies have made it one of the biggest players in the streaming market. Now you can add zombies to the mix, because the platform is the new home of long-running survival hit The Walking Dead – episodes of its long-awaited final season are currently debuting every week.
If the undead and Disney seem like unlikely bedfellows, their presence can be explained by the addition of Star, a new add-on that joined Disney Plus UK in February 2021, and has bolstered the service with extra grown-up fare. Now you can watch Grey’s Anatomy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, 24 and loads more classics from the vast archives of Disney and 20th Century Fox, the rival studio the House of Mouse bought in a multi-billion-dollar deal in 2019.
Beyond the library of classic content, Disney Plus UK is home to some of the most exciting new TV shows in the known universe, from the exciting MCU action of WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, to the epic space opera of Star Wars shows The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch. Disney Plus UK is also home to massive new movies, with the premium Premier Access service giving you the chance to watch the blockbuster likes of Black Widow and Jungle Cruise before they’re available to regular subscribers.
In this extensive guide, we'll give you all the key info about watching Disney Plus in the UK, including upcoming shows and movies, the price, Premier Access and Star – zombies included…
- How to watch the Marvel movies in order
- How to watch the Star Wars movies in order
- Best Disney Plus movies
What is Disney Plus?
Think of Disney Plus as the House of Mouse's version of Netflix. You get an extensive archive of Disney movies to watch, as well as a hefty back catalogue of Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and National Geographic movies and TV shows. You've also got 31 seasons of The Simpsons to watch.
Disney is bulking up the offering out with a massive range of original TV shows and movies, too, which have so far included Marvel’s WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and What If...?, Star Wars offerings The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, and the final season of The Clone Wars, plus Diaries of a Future President, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Turner & Hooch, Lady and the Tramp, Pixar's Soul, Luca and Monsters at Work, and many more.
You can watch Disney Plus on a whole range of devices. Scroll down for more on app compatibility.
How to sign up to Disney Plus
To get Disney Plus, all you have to do is head to the Disney Plus website, create an account, pick which tier you want and enter your billing details to get started. With your login details to hand, you'll then want to download Disney Plus onto the device of your choice, say a smartphone, smart TV, games console or tablet. Scroll down for a list of compatible devices.
Disney Plus free trial: is there one?
There is no Disney Plus free trial in the UK any more, unfortunately, as it was discontinued in June 2020. The cheapest way to get Disney Plus is the monthly deal, or you can wait and see if Disney offers another sale deeper into the year.
Disney Plus UK price: worth it?
Disney Plus costs £7.99 per month or £79.90 per year as of February 23, 2021, which is when Star content was added to the service. Back when it launched, it cost £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year – so it's had a price increase since.
Existing subscribers, however, have seen their rates honoured for six months – that means August 23, 2021 is when the new tariff will apply.
For a more in-depth look at the Disney Plus price – including info on bundles – click the link for our dedicated guide.
Disney Plus Premier Access: what is it and how much is it?
Disney Plus Premier Access is a premium option that allows you to watch big new movies before they're available to regular Disney Plus customers. Launched in September 2020, it was designed to give subscribers an option to watch major releases while cinemas were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon both debuted exclusively on Premier Access. Then, as UK cinemas emerged from lockdown, Cruella, Black Widow and Jungle Cruise appeared on the platform at the same time they arrived in movie theatres.
At £19.99 per movie, the cost of Premier Access may seem pricey – especially on top of your regular Disney Plus subscription – but in most cases it'll be cheaper than taking the family to the flicks. There's also the added bonus that you can watch the film again and again – as long as your Disney Plus subscription remains active.
And if you don't want to pay for Premier Access, releases tend to appear on the standard Disney Plus package in around 90 days – after landing on Premier Access on May 28, 2021, Cruella became available to regular Disney Plus subscribers on August 27.
Black Widow will become available to all Disney Plus subscribers at no additional charge from October 6, while Jungle Cruise will land on November 12.
Star on Disney Plus: TV shows and movies added to the service
In February 2021, Disney Plus UK added Star to the package – a new channel that sits on the homepage like Star Wars, Disney, Pixar, Marvel and National Geographic. With parental controls enabled, this allows users to watch adult TV shows and movies on the streaming service, and has doubled the amount of content available. Here's everything that came at launch – more has been rolled out since then.
The line-up includes loads of older content that Disney owns via other production houses, including Fox, which it bought in a multi-billion-dollar deal in 2019. As well as adding extensive library content to the service, like The X-Files, Lost, 24, Atlanta, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, Prison Break, Black-Ish, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and a selection of the Die Hard movies, original shows are a massive part of the offering, here.
Originals on Star on Disney Plus include Helstrom, Big Sky, Love, Victor, Solar Opposites, Dollface and Next. Many more are coming: if it's made by FX, Hulu, 20th Century TV or ABC in the US, it'll probably land on Disney Plus in the future. Confirmed future exclusives include comic book adaptation Y: The Last Man (set for a September 22 release) and Jeff Bridges spy drama The Old Man (due in 2022).
Additional older movies are being added each month, meanwhile, and we're already pretty impressed by the line-up.
Star is included with your existing Disney Plus subscription. You don't have to do anything extra to get it.
Disney Plus UK new TV shows and movies: what's coming up?
Want a sample of what Disney Plus has coming up? Disney revealed a whole heap of new shows and movies during its Investor Day, many of which are coming to Disney Plus instead of theaters.
Also, with the UK's Fox TV channel having ceased broadcasting on June 30, some of the service's most high-profile shows have made the trip to Disney Plus and Star.
Most notably, the 11th and final season of The Walking Dead is debuting new episodes exclusively on Star in the UK, with the 10 previous seasons also available to stream. The second season of War of the Worlds (starring Gabriel Byrne) has also made its UK debut on Star.
Let's start with the movies:
NEW MOVIES FOR 2022 AND BEYOND
- Disenchanted: 2022
- Cheaper By The Dozen (reimagining): 2022
- Three Men and a Baby (remake): 2022
- Sister Act 3: TBA
- Peter Pan & Wendy: TBA
- Pinocchio (live-action): TBA
- Star Wars: A Droid Story: TBA
- Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers: TBA
- Hocus Pocus 2: TBA
These are the Disney Plus TV shows we know about, including a heap of new Star Wars and Marvel shows:
MARVEL TV SHOWS
- Hawkeye: November 24, 2021
- Ms. Marvel: TBA
- Secret Invasion: TBA
- Armor Wars: TBA
- Loki season 2: TBA
- Ironheart: TBA
- She-Hulk: TBA
- Moon Knight: TBA
- Wakanda spin-off: TBA
STAR WARS TV SHOWS
- Star Wars: Visions: September 22, 2021
- The Book of Boba Fett: December 2021
- The Bad Batch season 2: 2022
- The Mandalorian season 3: TBA
- Andor: TBA
- Obi-Wan Kenobi: TBA
- Ahsoka: TBA
- Lando Calrissian series: TBA
- The Acolyte: TBA
PIXAR TV SHOWS
- Dug Days: Late 2021
- Cars: Late 2022
- Win or Lose: Late 2023
DISNEY ANIMATION TV SHOWS
- Iwájú: 2022
- Baymax: 2022
- Zootopia+: 2022
- Tiana: 2022
- Moana: 2023
- Beauty and the Beast Gaston and LeFou spin-off: TBA
OTHER DISNEY PLUS RELEASES
- Willow TV series: 2022
- Earthkeepers: TBA
- (Re) Connect: TBA
- Ink & Paint: TBA
- Percy Jackson TV series: TBA
- National Treasure TV series: TBA
- New Star Wars TV shows and movies explained
- The Boys season 3: release date and what we know
Marvel TV shows on Disney Plus UK
On January 15, 2021, WandaVision began on Disney Plus. This nine-episode show stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, reprising their respective roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was the first new entry in the MCU since Spider-Man: Far From Home swung into cinemas in July 2019.
The show has since been followed by Captain America spin-off The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in March 2021, Thor follow-up Loki in June 2021, and What If...? in August 2021. Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight and more are also suiting up for Disney Plus debuts in upcoming months and years.
Each of Marvel's live-action Disney Plus series so far has boasted big-screen-level production values and complex storylines, making the streaming platform an essential destination for fans looking to keep up-to-date with the labyrinthine plotting of the MCU.
Star Wars on Disney Plus UK
That galaxy far, far away is another big reason to sign up to Disney Plus. As well as hosting all of the movie releases so far, the streamer is home to Lucasfilm's exciting new fleet of Star Wars TV shows. The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch are already available, and Disney confirmed in December that the long-running franchise's small-screen future is a really big deal.
Beyond The Mandalorian spin-offs The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka, we'll get to see Rogue One prequel Andor, witness the early days of a scoundrel in the Lando Calrissian spin-off, have a glimpse of the Republic 200 years before the Clone Wars in The Acolyte, and learn what Obi-Wan Kenobi got up to in his decades-long exile on Tatooine.
Star Wars reputation was built in movie theatres, but its future looks brightest on TV.
Pixar on Disney Plus UK
Filmographies don't come more impressive than Pixar's collection of classic animated movies. Alongside the Toy Stories, WALL-Es and Incredibles, the animation studio's two most recent releases have debuted exclusively on Disney Plus.
In December 2020, Disney Plus gave us a Christmas Day treat with Soul, the story of a music teacher, who's close to getting his big break playing with a jazz quartet, before he inadvertently steps into a realm of souls trying to find their way to Earth. While it‘s more existential than your average kids’ film (and may go well over little ‘uns’ heads), it's well worth a watch – not least because it's from the mind of Pete Docter, director of Up and Inside Out.
In June, we got a dose of Mediterranean sun, courtesy of Luca. It's the tale of a pair of sea monster kids who masquerade as humans in an Italian seaside time, and while the story is undeniably slight, it's a heartwarming coming-of-age tale.
And in July, Pixar debuted its first TV series as Monsters at Work continued the story of Monsters, Inc – with Cars and Up spin-offs also on the way, it definitely won't be the last.
Disney Plus supports 4K and HDR streams
Disney Plus supports 4K and HDR. When you're in the app, head over to the 'details' tab of a given movie or show and you'll see a section that says 'available in the following formats', which will explain if the content in question features 4K Ultra HD and HDR.
You now have an extensive collection of Star Wars and Marvel movies to watch in 4K with HDR. Enjoy!
Disney Plus UK: compatible devices and apps
Disney Plus has launched on pretty much any device you can name in the UK, including mobile devices, games consoles, streaming media devices and many of the best smart TVs. You can take Disney Plus shows on the go, too, downloading as many movies and shows as you can fit on your device, as long as you have an active subscription and connect to the internet every 30 days.
Disney Plus UK is available on LG TVs, Sky Q, Apple TV, Roku streaming devices, Android (5.0 and later), iOS (11.0 and later), PS4, Xbox One, LG WebOS smart TVs, Samsung Tizen smart TVs, Google Chromecast, Now TV, and Amazon's Fire range of streaming devices. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S can also get the service.
One notable exception is the Nintendo Switch, which is still pretty poor at supporting streaming services.
Phillips' Android-based smart TVs support Disney Plus too. Your Samsung TV may be able to get Disney Plus, as well. Read our guide and discover if your TV can support it.
Disney Plus app links: how to download Disney Plus
You should be able to search for and download Disney Plus on the device of your choice, but here are some app links if you're having a bit of trouble. Disney Plus is available in web browsers, on Smart TVs, through Amazon devices, iOS, Android, PS4, Xbox One, Roku and almost anything else you can name (except Nintendo Switch).
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