"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is coming to the big screen on Dec. 18, and if Netflix has its way, you can binge-watch on the entire Star Wars franchise come early 2016.
Lately, Netflix hasn't been too kind to customers and people on the fence about cutting the cord and joining the digital shift to streaming services. The company has raised its Standard tier of service up $1 from $8.99 to $9.99 per month. (Other plans currently remain unchanged.) At the same time, the company has also removed several classic horror movies from its library such as "The Exorcist" and "Night of the Living Dead" during the scariest month of the year.
But in a deal inked back in 2012 with Disney, Netflix may just win for itself more loyal customers and new customers who are fans of the "Star Wars" franchise. In that deal, all of Disney's films — including those films from Marvel and Pixar — will stream exclusively on Netflix starting Jan. 1, 2016.
Now that we're in the last quarter of the year and two months away from the worldwide premiere of The Force Awakens, the internet is abuzz about whether or not that deal includes all of the films from the "Star Wars" series. Internet sleuths have found evidence supporting that possibility by finding pages on Netflix that serve as placeholders for when the films do become available for streaming. Of course, those pages have since been deleted but the screenshots are still available online.
Those leaks occurred about a month ago, but a recent comment from Netflix brings hope: "It's up to Disney. ... It's an ongoing discussion," Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos remarked. Obviously, exclusive rights to stream "Star Wars" would be a huge win for Netflix and it looks like the ball is in Disney's court now.
Even though there is no shortage of ways to binge-watch the entire "Star Wars" saga via DVD and Blu-ray, more options are always better. If and when the possibility of streaming all the movies becomes a reality, current subscribers can still get their "Star Wars" streaming fix by watching the animated "Clone Wars" movie and TV show — these are still live on Netflix.
Photo: Amy | Flickr
