As we kick off a new year, Disney+ UK brings us a selection of new content from across their catalogue for everyone to cosy up with on those cold dark nights. There’s a new take on an iconic Dickens character and a new Marvel series, plus several true crime docs, and bingable classics. Here is what’s coming to Disney+ in January 2024.
Disney+ Originals & UK Exclusive January 2024 Highlights
SALEM, Seasons 1-3 – 3rd January 2024 (Series)
Whilst this is an older series (originally airing in the USA from 2014-17) I don’t think all three seasons of ‘Salem‘ have ever aired on broadcast or streaming in the UK before. In ‘Salem‘, witches are real, but they are not who or what they seem. The show, which centres on an epic romance wrapped around this explosive revelation, delivers a bold new vision of Salem – and an even bolder new vision of witches. Janet Montgomery (New Amsterdam), Shane West (Nikita, Gotham), Seth Gabel (Fringe, Big Sky), Tamzin Merchant (Carnival Row, Supergirl), and Ashley Madekwe (Tell Me A Story, The Umbrella Academy) star.
MARVEL STUDIOS’ ECHO – 10th January 2024 (Series)
Alaqua Cox (“Hawkeye”) stars as the unforgiving Maya Lopez, who made her MCU debut in 2021 in Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” as a deaf gang leader who was determined to make Ronin (aka Clint Barton) pay for his own vengeful deeds. Although the series largely takes place after the events of “Hawkeye,” this will also act as an origin story that revisits Lopez, whose ruthless behaviour in New York City catches up with her in her hometown. She must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward.
DEMONS & SAVIORS – 10th January 2024 (True Crime Series)
The three-part series “Demons and Saviors” tells the remarkable story of Christina Boyer – once infamously known as the “poltergeist girl,” now a woman convicted of murdering her three-year-old daughter. Thirty years into a life sentence, Christina still proclaims her innocence. The series follows a group of amateur sleuths who have become consumed by their obsession to exonerate her. Exploring Christina’s troubled upbringing, her alleged telekinetic abilities, and the questions that remain about the death of her daughter, “Demons and Saviors” investigates what is the conspiracy and what is the truth.
THE ARTFUL DODGER – 17th January 2024 (Series)
Set in 1850s Australia, in the lively colony of Port Victory, Jack Dawkins is The Artful Dodger, whose fast, pickpocketing fingers have turned into the skilled hands of a surgeon. Dodger’s past returns to haunt him with the arrival of Fagin, luring him back into a world of crime. A greater threat – to Dodger’s heart – is Lady Belle, the Governor’s daughter, determined to become the colony’s first female surgeon. From heists to life-and-death surgeries, to the harsh realities of the criminal world mingling with the middle ground and gentry. This is a tale of reinvention, betrayal, redemption, and love with a twist. Thomas Brodie-Sangster takes the title role with David Thewlis as the notorious Fagin.
THE CREATOR – 17th January 2024 (Film)
Amidst a future war between humans and AI, an ex-special forces agent (John David Washington) grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan) is recruited to kill an AI architect who has developed a mysterious weapon that could end humankind, in this epic sci-fi action thriller.
CRISTÓBAL BALENCIAGA – 19th January 2024 (Series)
Cristóbal Balenciaga begins as the designer presents his first Parisian Haute Couture collection in 1937. He has left behind a successful career in his ateliers in Madrid and San Sebastian dressing the Spanish elite and aristocracy. However, the designs that had set the trend in Spain don’t quite work in the sophisticated fashion empire that Paris has become, where Chanel, Dior and Givenchy are the benchmark of Haute Couture. Guided by his obsession for control in all aspects of his life, Cristóbal Balenciaga will define his style and eventually become one of the most important designers of all time.
A REAL BUG’S LIFE – 24th January 2024 (Series)
Inspired by the World of Disney and Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, the new Disney+ Original Series from National Geographic, A Real Bug’s Life, is an incredible adventure into nine different micro bug worlds around the globe, where the forces of nature play out on a miniature scale and where tiny creatures rely on amazing powers and extraordinary alliances to make it through each day. The stakes are high … even if the critters are extraordinarily small. With new developments in filming technology and narrated by fun and witty guide Awkwafina, follow the incredible stories of the tiny heroes living in worlds beyond the imagination — from a jumping spider looking for a home on the streets of New York to a Costa Rican orchid bee’s first day on the job making perfume!
NEVER LET HIM GO – 24th January 2024 (True Crime Series)
When authorities found Scott Johnson’s body at the rocky base of a cliff in Australia in 1988, they declared his death a suicide. The gay American mathematician’s tragic demise and the murky circumstances surrounding it set his older brother Steve Johnson’s decades-long pursuit for answers in motion. “Never Let Him Go,” a new docu-series from ABC News Studios, paints an intimate portrait of Scott’s life and untimely death through never-before-seen evidence from the investigation, personal home videos and rare archival footage from 1980s Sydney. As Steve’s probe gained international attention, it sparked a public reckoning in Australia, shedding new light on a pattern of violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
Other Notable Additions
Outside of the various premieres above, several interesting boxsets are coming to Disney+ UK which have previously aired elsewhere. ‘Modern Family’ Season 11 lands on January 1st, meaning you can now binge your way through the entire series from start to finish in one place. They are also adding both seasons of ‘Don’t trust the B—– in Apt. 23’ from January 10th, the show which helped catapult star Krysten Ritter to her role on ‘Breaking Bad’, which, in turn, helped lead to her landing the role of Marvel’s ‘Jessica Jones’. The 6th and final season of FX’s ‘Snowfall’ drops on January 3rd, having previously aired on the BBC in the UK. And 2014 period drama movie ‘A Little Chaos’, directed by the late, great, Alan Rickman, starring Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rickman, Stanley Tucci, and the late, great Helen McCrory, lands on January 5th.
In addition to these, Disney+ UK has taken to “surprise dropping” shows without any warning over the last few months, so make sure you check out the UK TV Premiere Dates page for the latest updates. If you want to keep track of these or any other show, you can also add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
