Disney Is a Tech Company?

The latest in pop-culture news, recaps, and reviews, plus close reads, profiles, interviews, and more from Vulture.com. [Brand Logo]( hard pivot [Why Disney Plussed Itself]( CEO Bob Iger knew the streaming wars were coming. He just couldn’t fight them without taking a massive risk. Illustration: Zohar Lazar; Photo Getty Back in the[spring of 2015](, Richard Plepler was the CEO of HBO — and, as it turned out, something of a streaming pioneer. Under Plepler’s leadership, and with a big boost from the fifth season of Game of Thrones, the company had just launched[HBO Now](, which at the time stood as the most ambitious direct-to-consumer streaming service yet from a legacy media company — and would eventually morph into Max. While its early user base was small — fewer than a million paid customers nearly a year after its debut — Now caught the attention of HBO’s media frenemies, all of whom knew the switch from linear TV to streaming was unavoidable. “Every executive in our industry was thinking about this transition,” Plepler says. Among the suits paying close attention to HBO Now: Disney CEO Bob Iger. [read more]( The Emmys Race Continues Apace … Photo: Daniel Paik In a [conversation hosted earlier this week]( following a screening of [Fallout’s finale]( at the the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center in midtown Manhattan, Walton Goggins talked to our critic Kathryn VanArendonk about his prep (he read the script 250 times) and how he passed time in the the makeup chair, among other things. ➽ [Watch the full interview with Walton Goggins.]( ➽ [For coverage of all things Emmys, sign up for Gold Rush, our newsletter about the perpetual Hollywood awards race.]( Devour pop culture with us. [Subscribe now]( to save over 40% on unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. The Latest TV Recaps • The Real Housewives of Dubai: [Say Yes to the Dress]( • Love Is Blind: UK: [Momzillas and Mortgages]( • Bad Monkey: [A Tale of Two Beaches (Episode 1)](, [Sucked Unwillingly Into Chaos (Episode 2)]( • Sunny: [Grief Shield]( • Bad Monkey: [A Tale of Two Beaches]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Stories We Think You’ll Like [Call It Tom Petty Noir Behind its Corona-chill exterior, Florida caper Bad Monkey is impatient with bullshit.]( By Jen Chaney [See How We’re Breaking This Down? Very Demure. A mindful, considerate, and cutesy explanation of how Jools Lebron’s favorite new word became TikTok’s favorite new meme.]( By Jennifer Zhan [Here’s Your Genie+ Pass to The Disney Dilemma All of the episodes and companion stories for the latest season of the Land of the Giants podcast.]( By Vulture Editors [Delta Work and the Diet Coke Caper The Drag Race season-three queen shows off the best talent we’ve seen in ages — identifying Diet Cokes.]( By Jason P. Frank [How to Turn Your Drama into a Thriller With a Single Line of Dialogue For most of its runtime, Good One is a quiet, keenly observed drama — until one stomach-dropping sentence transforms it.]( By Matthew Jacobs [What’s Going On With Jordan Chiles and Her Bronze Medal? The Court of Arbitration for Sport is not reopening the case.]( By Alejandra Gularte [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Vulture Games [Today’s Crossword]( 25-Across, Three Letters: Donkey Kong or King Kong Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Cindy Ord/Getty Images, Christopher Polk/WWD via Getty Images, John Nacion/WireImage [Today’s Cinematrix]( Can you name a Laurence Fishburne movie with an “X” in the title? Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Samir Hussein/WireImage, Marc Piasecki/WireImage, Theo Wargo/Getty Images A newsletter about the perpetual Hollywood awards race, for subscribers only. [Sign up]( to get it every week. [Get the Newsletter]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe]( | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1701 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2024, All rights reserved