Summary

• Disney+ offers a wide range of family-friendly content, including classic Disney movies and original series like Marvel and Star Wars spinoffs.
• Shows like The Secret Score and Iwájú bring unique stories and cultural perspectives to the platform, appealing to a diverse audience.
• X-Men '97 and Star Wars: Tales of the Empire provide exciting continuations of beloved animated series, keeping fans engaged with new adventures.

Disney+ STAR offers highly anticipated movies and shows for adults.

Disney+ has enhanced its focus on Marvel and Star Wars with its original programming. These shows take place in a wide range of settings, from war-torn Europe to the faraway galaxy of the Star Wars franchise, and feature diverse groups of young people facing off against many types of evil forces and characters. The streaming platform offers a good mix of animated and live-action content, mostly family-friendly. Here is a list of several of the best original shows Disney+ has to offer.

8 The Secret Score

A Group Of Friends Discovers A Musical Score That Gives Them Magic Powers

The Secret Score is a Mexican series that offers a unique take on the "children with magic powers" trope. The series revolves around Maya (Val Dorantes), a teenage saxophonist who is searching for her missing boyfriend, Leo, while at a prestigious music conservatory. The search leads her to discover a mysterious musical score, which appears to grant her and her friends magical powers. Throughout their journey together, she and her friends learn to control their powers while searching for Leo, ultimately discovering dark forces at play and villains that want the magical score for themselves.

The Secret Score is a Spanish-language show with English subtitles. s can change their settings if they prefer to watch a dubbed English version of the series.

This series highlights Disney+'s focus on fantasy and magic without being part of an established franchise such as the Marvel movies that Disney+ often focuses on. Additionally, it offers a fascinating look into another culture since it is produced in Mexico and features Mexican actors and writers. The stories are lighthearted and contain some violence but no serious horror, so this show isn't too scary for children, though its themes suggest it is best for those aged 10 and up.

7 Echo

A Limited Series Adaptation Of Marvel's Hawkeye Character

Echo is Marvel's most-watched show of 2024 so far. A spinoff of Hawkeye, it features Alaqua Cox as the title character. In this series, Echo (aka Maya Lopez) flees the evil Wilson Fisk's organization and returns to her hometown in Oklahoma. While there, she must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots, and accept her place in her community, all while trying to permanently neutralize Fisk and his evil organization.

Hawkeye is also available on Disney+.

There are not enough TV series featuring Native Americans, making Echo a unique and important show. Echo is also Deaf and has a prosthetic leg, but this does not interfere with her ability to fight when needed. The series explores the culture of Maya/Echo's tribe and includes the theme of Echo exploring her identity while retaining the important battles between superheroes and supervillains central to the Marvel brand. Fisk is both the villain after Echo and an uncle who is desperate to reconnect with her, cementing the theme of family and community.

6 Star Wars: Tales of the Empire

Two Warriors On Different Paths Shape Their Shared Destinies

A list of Disney+ shows would not be complete without some of their original Star Wars spinoffs. Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is an animated series featuring two very different warriors navigating life during the Imperial Age. Morgan Elsbeth is a young warrior hellbent on vengeance after she loses her entire family, especially her mother, during the battle of Dathomir, while Barriss Offee is a former Jedi who is retrained as an Inquisitor after being imprisoned.

Tales of the Empire is the second entry in the Tales of the Jedi anthology series and has only six episodes.

The first three episodes of the series focus on Elsbeth's journey from an angry and grieving child to an iron-fisted ruler of the Empire. They detail the losses she suffers at the hands of the Jedis along the path she has chosen and her inability to listen to those who try to deter her from seeking vengeance before switching to Offee's perspective and telling her story. These six episodes provide an interesting exploration of the history of the Empire that Star Wars audiences will enjoy.

5 Iwájú

A Futuristic Animated Series Set In Lagos

Iwájú is a notable animated series set in a futuristic, technologically advanced society in Lagos, Nigeria. The protagonist is Tola Martins, a 10-year-old girl from a wealthy island, and her best friend Kole, the family gardener, who is also a tech expert. When Tola is kidnapped by the wealthy and evil Bode, who is responsible for several disappearances on the mainland, Kole must use his tech expertise to rescue her and expose Bode's wrongdoings. A subplot involves a robot lizard that is supposed to be Tole's bodyguard but has a faulty battery.

Iwájú is based on a short story by Olufikayo Adeola, who also writes for the series.

Iwájú differs from most of Disney+'s other offerings because it is set in Nigeria and features Nigerian writers and voice talent. It offers insight into Nigerian culture and addresses themes such as income inequality and classism and how these influence the people and culture in Lagos. There are only six episodes, making this an enjoyable short series that makes important points while being highly entertaining.

4 Star Wars: The Bad Batch

This Animated Spinoff Of Clone Wars Is Also A Sequel

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a sequel series to Star Wars: Clone Wars that focuses on Clone Force 99, also known as the Bad Batch. Although the Bad Batch are all clones, they were designed experimentally, and each is different from one another. The clones all have one unique skill that makes them an exceptional fighter.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch was renewed for a third and final season in April 2023.

This series offers a different take on the Clone Wars, featuring a formidable team of clones that enemies find hard to beat. The premise of these clones' adventures is similar to the premise of X-Men, as these clones are genetic mutants with superpowers who have gone on the run. The Bad Batch's genetic mutations have allowed them to defy Order 66 and keep fighting, often doing mercenary missions. There are subplots involving other sets of clones beginning to question the order, making this a must-see for those who love Star Wars.

3 Doctor Who

A Soft Reboot Of The Classic British Sci-Fi Series

Disney+ is the new home for Doctor Who, a long-running British science fiction series that celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2023. The series was originally conceived as a way to teach British schoolchildren about history and science but soon took on a life of its own. Doctor Who features a central character who travels through time in space in a police box — that is bigger on the inside than the outside — and has the ability to regenerate into a new form when mortally wounded.

Doctor Who was canceled in 1989 but returned in 2005 with a new, hour-long format before being soft rebooted by Disney+ in 2023.

The Doctor is currently played by Ncuti Gatwa, the first Black and gay actor to take the role in the series' history. He is traveling with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), an orphan from 2024 Earth who is desperate to find out who her birth mother was and why she was abandoned. Each adventure is more or less self-contained, but the mystery of Ruby's origins ties all the episodes together. There is also a subplot about the identity of a Doctor Who character, who is played by Susan Twist and has appeared in minor roles in every episode.

2 Renegade Nell

A Historical Fantasy Set In 18th Century England

Like Doctor Who, Renegade Nell is a British series set in 18th-century England. The title character is a woman who has been framed for murder and gone on the run. Nell Jackson (Louisa Harland) becomes a highwaywoman who is deeply feared by all who cross her path. Nell has superhuman strength and is guided by a magical spirit named Billie Blind as she pursues justice for the crimes committed against her and her family.

Disney+ has not yet confirmed whether there will be a second season of Renegade Nell

Renegade Nell offers a unique blend of historical accuracy and fantastical elements, such as spirits and magic, that tells the story of Nell's quest to clear her name and get justice for her family. Throughout the eight-episode series, Nell is opposed by the equally powerful but evil Thomas Blanchford. Thomas gains power from a pendant he wears, while the source of Nell's power is unknown at the start of the saga. In the first episode, Thomas kills Nell's father and blames Nell for it, causing her to go on the run while hoping to defeat him eventually.

1 X-Men '97

A Superb Animated Continuation Of The X-Men Series

X-Men '97 continues the story begun in X-Men: The Animated Series by detailing the adventures of the team of mutant superheroes after Professor X is no longer able to lead them due to injuries sustained at the end of the original series. The team is now led by Magneto, who was once an enemy of the X-Men but now s them as they continue to defend mutants' right to exist and humans who are under threat from various supervillains. Mutants such as Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and Rogue return for this series.

Professor X was critically injured and is presumed dead at X-Men '97's start.

Like its predecessor, X-Men '97 on Disney+ features a unique blend of soap opera-like stories and superhero fare, with romantic relationships causing drama and friction between some characters. Clashes between mutants and anti-mutant forces are a prominent part of this series, especially because the UN has sanctioned the X-Men following Professor X's presumed death in a violent clash. This allows X-Men '97 to continue to explore themes of prejudice against those who are different while fighting for a better world.