Star Wars and Iron Man may not disappear from Netflix in 2019 after all

Enlarge (credit: Lucasfilm)

Earlier this week, Disney announced plans to pull many of its popular titles from Netflix in 2019 and put them on its own new forthcoming streaming service. While many children's movies like Frozen and Toy Story 4 won't be available on Netflix anymore, Star Wars and superhero fans may be in luck. According to a Reuters report, Netflix is in "active discussions" with Disney about securing the rights to Lucasfilm and Marvel titles after 2019.

At the time of Disney's announcement, Chief Executive Bob Iger said the company hadn't decided what to do with the rights to Star Wars and Marvel comics films currently on Netflix. The rights could go to Netflix again or to another streaming service—or Disney could keep the rights to use however it pleases. Disney's new streaming service, which is slated for a 2019 debut, will include all of the "newest live-action and animated movies from Disney and Pixar."

Netflix's Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos, told Reuters that the two companies are still in "active discussions" over these rights, and there's no word on when a deal could be reached. Sarandos also said he believes Disney's service could be "complementary" to Netflix since Netflix has many children's movies available, including Despicable Me and Shrek, that aren't owned or created by Disney.