Disney+ and Hulu, sitting in a tree

And Emma Stone teaser trailer is WOW

What to know

• Disney+ and Hulu to merge but also stay separate, content cuts are coming… Lots of news from Bob Iger’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday. First, Disney’s stock is down Thursday after Disney+ lost 4 million subscribers. On the other hand, the company decreased its streaming losses by 26%. So, yay? To save money, the Mouse is expected to reduce the amount of content it’s making for streaming and pull an HBO Max by removing costly, under-watched titles from its libraries. Boo! Meanwhile, Iger revealed that Disney is in talks with Comcast, which owns a stake in Hulu, about buying it out of that arrangement. That might cost Disney $9 billion, but it would make it the full owner of Hulu, which leads to the biggest news: By year’s end there will be a combined “one-app experience” for Hulu and Disney+. They’ll also still be offered separately just to make things more confusing for everyone. Also, the price of Disney+ is going up… because capitalism. 🐭

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse eyes big $70-80 million opening weekend… That would be more than double Into the Spider-Verse’s $35.6M debut — but I think Across is going to do even better than these expectations. The original is still massively popular, Spider-Man has only grown in profile thanks to No Way Home, and there’s a huge demand for family fare at the box office right now (case in point: Mario). My money is on $100M at least. 🕷

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• Bad Cinderella to close on Broadway… Meaning for the first time in 43 years there won’t be an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical on the Great White Way. The last time there wasn’t an ALW musical playing, Jimmy Carter was president. 😱

• Jaleel White cast in Star Wars Skeleton Crew… The actor best known for playing Steve Urkel revealed at a hockey game, of all places, that he’ll be playing a pirate in the galaxy far, far away and had to do two hours of makeup every day. ✨

• A Freaky Friday sequel is officially in the works at Disney, with Lohan and Curtis expected to return… It seemed during Oscar season that Jamie Lee Curtis was really interested in pursuing this, so here we are. 🔁

• Nancy Drew stage musical in the works from Alan Menken, Nell Benjamin, and James Lapine… At first, I was like Nancy Drew? But then looking at those creative leads, this could be something special. 🔎

• Peacock to stream all 2024 Olympic events… Finally! It’s been such a hassle trying to find events with recent games across NBC, NBC’s app, the NBC Sports app, and Peacock. 🦚

• John Travolta, 69, to star in rom-com opposite Katherine Heigl, 44… Pay no attention to their ages, I included then for no reason whatsoever. 🤔

• Dan Stevens joins Radio Silence’s Universal monster movie… The Beast himself is no stranger to monster movies. 👹

• Here’s the first trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3… Opa! 🇬🇷

• And here’s the first trailer for the Neegan-Maggie Walking Dead spinoff… Something’s gotta keep AMC afloat. 🧟‍♀️

• Paul Walker’s daughter has a cameo in Fast X… Because we know what it’s all about. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

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What’s new

• Hannah Gadsby: Something Special — May 9 | Netflix stand up | 🍅 86%

• Class of ‘09 — May 10 | Hulu/FX drama series | 🍅 56%

• The Muppets Mayhem — May 10 | Disney+ comedy series | 🍅 73%

• City on Fire — May 12 | Apple mystery thriller series | 🍅 40%

• Sill: A Michael J. Fox Movie — May 12 | Apple documentary | 🍅 98%

• BlackBerry — May 12 | Drama film in limited theaters | 🍅 98%

• Book Club: The Next Chapter — May 12 | Comedy in theaters | 🍅 54%

• Returning: The Great s3, Queer Eye s7, RuPaul’s All Stars Drag Race s8, Fear the Walking Dead s8, plus Air hits Prime Video on Friday

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What to watch

Teaser trailer: Poor Things — Sept 8 in theaters

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, written by Tony McNamara, starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley and Kathryn Hunter.

Wow! Maybe I should have paid closer attention to the plot summary or done more research into the book on which this is based, but what Lanthimos and McNamara are serving here is not at all what I was expecting. I thought this would be more grounded and muted (a la The Favourite) but instead it appears to be a fanciful fantasy sci-fi closer to Tim Burton or Wes Anderson than it is Merchant and Ivory. That’s thrilling! Even in a 30-second teaser that gives us very little otherwise. I’m fascinated by every element of this production, the production design, the humor, the high concept, and especially the casting (Ramy?! Jerrod?!). This shot way up my list, I’m really blown away and can’t wait to see more.

For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!