The Force Awakens Isn't Coming To Netflix, Despite Disney Deal

Yesterday we learned that starting in September, Netflix will become the exclusive streaming home to all things Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. Being a huge Star Wars nerd, it's easy to get hopeful about seeing The Force Awakens show up on my streaming provider of choice. However, that won't be happening any time soon.

We know that Netflix and Disney struck a deal for the streaming provider to be the sole home of their movies moving forward, so why not Star Wars? The issue isn't with the entire Star Wars franchise, it's just the one particular movie (well, two, but that's another story). You see, the agreement didn't take effect until this year, and means that it only guarantees that Netflix will be able to stream movies that were released after January 1st, 2016. And The Force Awakens was just shy of that mark.

For now, the rights to broadcast The Force Awakens lies exclusively with Starz, at least in the US. Starz did lose the rights to broadcast films internationally last year, which means that The Force Awakens will show up on Netflix in Canada.

Don't expect to see the original trilogy on the streaming site, either. Fox has exclusive distribution rights to A New Hope. They've had those rights for quite some time, and they have made no indication that they'll give those up. It will likely take quite a large sum of money for them to want to give up the rights to such an iconic film.

VIA: Polygon