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More than seven months after Mulan marked the debut of the “Premier Access” release strategy on Disney+, it’s another live-action spin on an animated classic that will be the next to be made available. Emma Stone plays the title role in Cruella, which is set to provide an origin story for the villain of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, just as the super-successful Maleficent did with Sleeping Beauty‘s iconic baddie.
It’s one of several big debuts arriving on Disney+ this coming month, alongside the second run of the silly, self-referential TV show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. There’s also the small matter of a new addition to the Star Wars universe, with post-Clone War animated adventure The Bad Batch.
Here’s everything coming to Disney+ UK in May 2021…
Original movies coming to Disney+ UK in May 2021
Cruella (28 May via Premier Access and in cinemas)
Disney is taking Cruella de Vil to 1970s London. I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie is at the helm for this take on the villain’s origins, following the path taken by aspiring fashion designer Estella that led her to her taste for puppy murder and rather on the nose moniker. Emma Stone is dusting off her flawless British accent for the role, with Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser and Mark Strong also in the cast.
Launchpad: A Short Film Collection (28 May)
Short films are a hugely important springboard for those looking to craft a career in the movie industry. With the Launchpad initiative, Disney is allowing up-and-coming filmmakers a platform for their visions. The first six shorts developing through the initiative — themed around the world “Discover” — spotlight filmmakers and stories from backgrounds under-represented amid the machinery of Hollywood.
Original TV coming to Disney+ UK in May 2021
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (weekly from 4 May)
The titular warriors of this new Star Wars series are clone fighters who vary genetically from their many identical brothers in the Clone Army. In the aftermath of the Clone Wars, they are left unemployed and decide to put their various unique skills to use as mercenaries.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (S2 weekly from 14 May)
A few quizzical eyebrows were raised when this show was announced, but most of them were lowered again pretty quickly when the first episode debuted. It’s a fascinating meta-show, set at the school where High School Musical was shot and featuring the school’s current drama students putting on a stage production of the movie. For the second season, they’re taking on Beauty and the Beast, so expect classic songs from that film as well as the High School Musical trilogy itself.
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. (Star, weekly from 21 May)
While Marvel fans endure the gap between The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the upcoming Loki series, the Star platform is delivering something very different. The Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing — or M.O.D.O.K. for short — is one of Marvel’s strangest super-villains and this animated series sees him nursing a mid-life crisis. His villainous antics have fallen short, his criminal organisation is on its uppers and his personal life is a mess. Life is hard when you’re just a massive head with limbs.
Rebel (Star, weekly from 28 May)
Inspired by the life of Erin Brockovich, this show thrusts a blue collar legal advocate — Katey Sagal’s title character — into a fight for a cause in which she truly believes. Given that Julia Roberts won an Oscar for playing Brockovich two decades ago, it’s clear there’s fertile ground in her life for special storytelling.
7 May
Glass (Star, 2019)
Unbreakable (Star, 2000)
(500) Days of Summer (Star, 2009)
Unstoppable (Star, 2010)
14 May
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Star, 2013)
This Means War (Star, 2012)
The Art of Getting By (Star, 2011)
Anastasia (1997)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Watch: Trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass
21 May
Akashinga: The Brave Ones (2020)
Gulliver’s Travels (2010)
The Monuments Men (Star, 2014)
Raising Arizona (Star, 1987)
Water for Elephants (Star, 2011)
28 May
12 Rounds (Star, 2009)
Aquamarine (Star, 2006)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Star, 2019)
Choke (Star, 2008)
Keeping up with the Joneses (Star, 2016)
Let’s Be Cops (Star, 2014)
Little Miss Sunshine (Star, 2006)
7 May
New Girl (S1-7, Star)
The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (S1-3)
Dog: Impossible (S1)
14 May
Station 19 (S1-3, Star)
Sadie Sparks (S1)
Fancy Nancy (S2)
911 Rescue Cops (S1)
21 May
Angel (S1-5, Star)
Inside Pixar (E16-20)
Raven’s Home (S4)
To Catch a Smuggler (S1)
Drugs Inc. Dealer POV
28 May
Bluey (S2)
The Cave (S1)
Science of Stupid (S8)
When Sharks Attack (Year 1-5)
ESPN
14 May
Year of the Scab (2017)
What Carter Lost (2017)
Tim Richmond: To The Limit (2010)
There’s No Place Like Home (2012)
The Good, The Bad, The Hungry (2019)
Dominican Dream (2019)
Phi Slama Jama (2016)
Of Miracles and Men (2015)
Little Big Men (2010)
Doc and Darryl (2016)
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Watch: Trailer for Cruella, starring Emma Stone
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