Advanced Television

Disney+ announces raft of new Star Originals

June 4, 2021

By Nik Roseveare

Disney+ has announced over 20 titles will premiere exclusively as Star Originals in the UK & Ireland including Pam & Tommy, Welcome to Wrexham, and Fleishman is in Trouble. Additionally, The Kardashian Jenner upcoming series will stream exclusively on Star on Disney+ with a tentative debut later this year.

Star is the new general entertainment brand on Disney+ that launched in the UK & Ireland in February, adding hundreds of TV series and movies alongside a slate of Star Originals this year, including series Big Sky and Dollface, and Oscar-winning movie Nomadland.

One of the biggest original series coming to Star is Only Murders in the Building (pictured), starring Hollywood legends Steve Martin and Martin Short alongside Selena Gomez. The comedy centres on three strangers who share an obsession with true crime and who suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one. The series will launch this autumn and is produced by 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios.


Meanwhile, Dopesick, takes viewers to the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Purdue Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA. This eight-episode series is produced by 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios.

Making its debut in 2022 is Pam & Tommy, the upcoming American biographical drama is the untold story of the world’s first viral video – the sex tape of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and actress Pamela Anderson played by Sebastian Stan and Lily James.

Additionally, Immigrant will premiere on Star on Disney+ in 2022. The eight-episode, limited series from 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios, is the true story of Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee (played by Kumail Nanjiani), the Indian-American entrepreneur who started Chippendales. 20th Television serves as the studio on the series.

FX

Over the next 18 months, FX will strengthen the FX brand by increasing its output to a slate of 30 shows per year—25 scripted and 5 unscripted that will all be available on Star on Disney+.

Titles previously unveiled at Disney’s Investor Day; American Horror Stories, Reservation Dogs, Y: The Last Man, and an Untitled BJ Novak project will launch on Star on Disney+ later in 2021. New series announced from FX include the aforementioned Welcome to Wrexham and The Choe Show.

Welcome to Wrexham is a docuseries tracking the dreams and people of Wrexham, a working-class town in North Wales, UK, as two Hollywood stars (Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds) take ownership of the town’s historic yet struggling football club. The ten-episode series will launch in the next twelve months. The Choe Show is a new interview show where artist David Choe paints a portrait – literally and figuratively – of his guests. The four-episode docuseries will be available for streaming on Star on Disney+ in 2021.

Also coming to Star in 2022 from FX are two new docuseries: Dear Mama, about the volatile life and legacy of the late hip-hop icon and poet Tupac Shakur, and the Black Panther member mother who raised him, and Pistol,based on legendary Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones’ 2018 memoir, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, which presents a new perspective on one of rock’s greatest ever stories.

Based on the New York Times bestselling debut novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (who will also adapt for the series), Fleishman is in Trouble will offer a modern take on life, love and commitment and will also make its debut in 2022, with dates to be confirmed.

DISNEY TELEVISION STUDIOS

From Disney Television Studios, the following series will debut in the next twelve months as Star Originals on Disney+:

The Big Leap, from 20th Television and Fox Entertainment, is a rowdy dramedy which follows a group of diverse, down-on-their-luck characters attempting to change their lives by participating in a potentially life-ruining, reality dance show.

Maggie,based on the short film by Tim Curcio, follows a young woman trying to cope with life as a psychic. The series is from 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios.

Queens follows four women in their 40s who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain their swagger they had as the ‘Nasty Bitches’, their ‘90s group that made them legends in the hip-hop world. The series is from ABC Signature, a part of Disney Television Studios.

Our Kind of People from 20thTelevision and Fox Entertainment is inspired by Lawrence Otis Graham’s critically acclaimed book. The drama series takes place in the aspirational world of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, a historical stronghold where the rich and powerful black elite have come to play for over 50 years.

Finally, from 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios comes a reboot of The Wonder Years, a coming-of-age story set in the late 1960s that takes a nostalgic look at a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama through the eyes of imaginative 12-year-old Dean.  

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

From National Geographic, the following returning series will launch on Disney+ over the next twelve months after their linear debuts:

Gordon Ramsay will be searching for that moment of bliss in Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted; fierce fact-finders like Mariana van Zeller challenge the world we know in Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller; Bear Grylls will lead celebrity guests toward moments of pure enlightenment in Running Wild with Bear Grylls; and Wicked Tuna follows a group of salty commercial fishermen from the nation’s oldest seaport in Gloucester, Massachusetts, as they earn their living through rod-and-reel fishing in pursuit of the prized bluefin tuna.

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