Disney+ is about to name a new commissioner in Australia and is not ruling out a return to production in Southeast Asia, Jon Wax, Disney Entertainment’s vice president of international original television, said at the Busan International Film Festival on Wednesday.
Wax revealed the streamer’s Asia-Pacific plans during a fireside chat at the Park Hyatt Busan, supported by the Motion Picture Association, Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the festival and Disney+. The session took place amid Disney+’s push to triple its local language production worldwide.
Wax said Disney+ was driving local original spending in Australia. Turning to the rest of Asia, he said: “There are a lot of other countries and, you know, we’re not in most of them yet, but again, we’re kind of doubling the number of regions that are working, in the spirit that we need to walk before we run, but given a long enough timeline, we hope to be in many more countries than where we are now.”
When asked whether production would resume in markets like Indonesia after previous disruptions, Wax said Disney+ was exploring specific productions there. “That’s definitely on the menu. We just need some time to implement it,” he said.
Local versions of the Korean unscripted hit “Battle of Fates,” which was confirmed to be in development in March, are currently in development, Wax said. In the supernatural competition series, practitioners of shamanism, tarot, face reading and saju compete against each other. This became the biggest series premiere ever on Disney+ in Korea and has since spawned a spinoff called “House of Fates.” Wax said the U.S. team acted quickly, as Choi Yeon-woo and her team, who run the Disney+ content operation in Korea, first brought the show to them.
Wax said the series felt culturally different, given the privileged position the subject matter holds in Korean society: “But every society on Earth has people who practice it. And we thought if this worked, it could be something that could be shot in other countries.”
Wax said Unscripted was “part of the well-rounded healthy diet of any global broadcaster,” pointing to the genre’s deep tradition across the region. “But at the same time, of course, in terms of cost and speed and availability, these are really good casts to have in any situation, where you can assemble some of these shows a little quicker than the larger scripted shows,” he said.
Wax acknowledged Disney’s arrival at local originals: “Maybe a little later than Netflix, but we’re really trying to catch up right now in a very exciting way.” He noted recent quarterly earnings calls that featured non-US content. “Since the transition from Bob Iger to Josh D’Amaro… he’s taken that banner and even stepped it up,” Wax said.
Wax laid out what he sees as Disney’s approach for creators weighing their options in an established streaming market. “We identify creators that we want to work with who have really fruitful ideas, and I think we can pick out the shows that have some stickiness to them,” he said. He added that his goal is to provide ample space for these creators while keeping the quality bar high.
Wax said Disney+ will continue to adapt known intellectual property once it has a built-in audience, but “part of Disney’s brand, I think what audiences around the world expect from Disney, brand-wise, is to create new stories, not just adapt existing stories. And in terms of some of the recent track record on that, you could certainly argue on the Disney film side.”
He said he regularly told the Korean development team that he didn’t want to rely solely on big IP or a big actor. “We love this stuff, but if the idea is strong enough on its own, then we’ll explore it even without a known story and a known actor,” Wax said.
Regarding Korea, Wax said the market has matured to the point where its programs will face the same tests as U.S. content. “It can be neat, it can be well produced, but that’s not enough. It has to have a good character journey,” he said. He added that competition is fierce but the talent bank is getting deeper every day.
Wax said he discovered that Disney+ started in Korea in 2021 with shows aimed at male audiences through action and violence, but has since expanded into romantic productions, citing “The Remarried Empress” and “Perfect Crown” in partnership with broadcaster MBC. “We want our Korean content to work in the Korean market first and foremost. If it doesn’t work locally… it won’t work globally in our opinion,” Wax said.
Burbank added that he is now looking for ways to identify Korean shows that garnered post-launch buzz and pushed them further.
“The Remarried Empress,” which premiered in Busan on Friday, is based on one of the most popular web cartoons by some measures. The series features an all-Korean cast dressed in Western Baroque costume and was largely shot in Europe. Wax said the deciding factor was the emotional arc between the lead characters Navier and Sovieshu. “The journey itself tells a story, it’s not just about the show,” he said.
Wax said the show bridges the gap between Disney-branded princesses and castles. “But I want to emphasize, and I think this crowd will know, that’s not what we’re going for. We’re going to do things that are pretty far from what Disney is known for as the prototype,” he said.
“The Koreans,” the streamer’s upcoming reboot of FX series “The Americans,” comes from a Korean producer who was a fan of the original and thought it was ripe for adaptation on the Korean Peninsula. Disney+ secured the rights, and Wax said he helped clear some technical hurdles in the process. He said his department is now making a more deliberate effort to find shows that can cross regions, from France to Argentina or from Korea to the United States.
Wax also touted Disney’s window-sharing co-production model with local broadcasters, which it calls “streams,” as a key part of its Korean business. “I’m hoping that with more partnerships we can lift all boats a little bit more, and we’re really looking for those, and we have a whole team dedicated to that,” he said. Upcoming Korean productions include modern-day vampire drama “Portraits of Delusion.”
Anime is another priority. Disney has begun transitioning its branded IP into anime with “Twisted-Wonderland” performing well, and an anime based on Hideo Kojima’s “Death Stranding” is also on the way. Wax said anime titles have a longer tail than standard performance metrics. “He’s been performing well for us and we want to do more,” he said. “We don’t have enough right now.”
The Japanese live action will take longer. “I don’t want to make broad cultural generalizations here, but the pace of business in Japan is a little faster, shall we say, intentional,” Wax said, adding that Japanese rights holders need time to trust their intellectual property to a partner. “Gannibal” has been the standout movie so far, and a live-action movie is coming as well.
When asked if the local priority rule applies in Japan, given that “Shogun” is playing better overseas than at home, Wax said Disney+ could still build its subscriber base there. “In Japan, we have to walk before we run,” he said. “Korean content has already shown its ability to break out, and so we’re riding that wave a little easier, but we want to make sure Japanese content works locally first.”
Disney+ is also testing microseries, podcast adaptations, live podcasts and live events, but Wax said some of that depends on the technical capabilities of the platform it’s being worked on. The company is exploring microdramas in Mexico, among other markets, and a separate department handles the format. Wax described microdramas as “a style of storytelling that audiences respond to” and said he sees them coexisting with traditional TV.
Wax said his team at 20th Century Fox Television experimented with shorter series that didn’t work. “I think it’s exciting to see people starting to tell stories in this format,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to just rush to that side of the boat and turn it into a shallow pool of short-lived shows.”
He said that when asked about his creative opinion on microdramas, he said that it needed to be “strengthened” on the form. “The rhythms of some of this storytelling are very different from my training and maybe not even different from my generation at this point,” he said.
Reaching younger audiences is “the question on everyone’s lips, not just at Disney,” Wax said, adding that his team consists of younger staff who are more sensitive to trends. While the Disney name is aimed at younger audiences, local originals are aimed at general entertainment. As for AI, Wax said it’s not part of his day-to-day duties, but speaking for himself, “I’m really interested in AI as a tool to enhance traditional storytelling.”
Wax said he doesn’t believe Disney+ is making local language features in Asia-Pacific yet, but it is doing something in Latin America and the company is open to doing so in the region one day.
Wax joined Disney about three years ago from Amazon Studios; where he headed global content synergy and worked on shows like “Fallout” and “The Rings of Power.” He previously held senior creative roles at YouTube Originals and 20th Century Fox Television, working on “24,” “Bones” and “Prison Break.” He said watching “Moving”, sent to him by the agent who hired him, convinced him to make the move.
Looking ahead five years, Wax said he wants Disney+ to become a daily destination in Asia-Pacific, and for viewers coming through local Korean originals to find other programming on the service. “I would like to have offers that are compelling enough that… you’ll not only come to Disney+ for specific games, but when you open the app, you’ll be excited to see what Disney+ has to offer you that you’ve never even heard of before,” he said.