After Gina Carano was fired from The Mandalorian, her supporters loudly declared that they were cancelling their Disney Plus subscriptions and from that point on would never give another penny to the House of Mouse. Did they follow through, though?
Well, a new rumor is claiming that viewership has “cratered” on the platform since February. If true, this would vindicate Carano’s fans, prove the size of her support and that they’re putting their money where their mouth is. In a way, a campaign like this succeeding would be uplifting, too, as it’d at least show that consumers are willing to place accountability over entertainment. The story claims that the service may be close to hitting a “ceiling” of new subscribers, that new subscriptions are down “63.9%,” and that “before that firing, WandaVision was easily getting up to 5 million views on night one. After the firing, WandaVision episodes were struggling to get over 2 million if this source is correct.”
Of course, we’d advise taking this with a pretty large grain of salt, as the source of the rumor appears to be perennially wrong YouTuber Doomcock. Not only that, but the reality of the situation seems to be that not only is the anti-Disney Plus crusade a damp squib, but the service is actually growing far quicker than expected.
On the specific point about WandaVision, while it’s true that it was initially a slow burner, the show became the third most in-demand series during its third week, then after the fifth episode it topped the global streaming charts and remained there until its finale.
Then there’s the fact that last week’s episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was Disney Plus’ most-watched premiere to date, meaning it beat both WandaVision and The Mandalorian. That, combined with the Star Wars franchises’ renewed focus on TV, the upcoming slate of MCU shows, and movies like Black Widow and Cruella now confirmed to land on the platform the same day as the theatrical release seems to be a good indication that Disney Plus is surging rather than sputtering.
It’s worth remembering, too, that for all the fire and fury, the vast majority of people around the world have no strong feelings one way or the other about Gina Carano‘s firing. Sure, those that do care will inevitably be the loudest, but they’re a very small minority (and those motivated enough to actually cancel their subscriptions are a minority within a minority).
My advice is to just ignore the rumors for now and keep an eye out for the Mouse House’s next earnings report on May 13th, which will conclusively reveal the latest data on Disney Plus.