Disney + will not continue with British series Nautilus to cut further costs

Nautilus, the British live-action Captain Nemo series that was to be commissioned by Disney+ two years ago, is no longer heading to the streamer. Based on Jules Verne's classic book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Nautilus is a ten-part live-action adventure series about the origins of Verne's iconic character, Captain Nemo, and his famous submarine, the Nautilus.



In this retelling, Nemo (Shazad Latif, pictured) is an Indian prince bereft of his birthright and family, a prisoner of the East India Company, and a man bent on revenge against the forces that took everything from him. But once he boards the awe-inspiring Nautilus with his desperate crew, he not only battles his enemy, but also discovers a magical underwater world.

In addition to Latif (Star Trek: Discovery), Georgia Flood (Wentworth) and Thierry Frémont (Das Boot) also play. Pacharo Mzembe (La Brea), Arlo Green (The Brokenwood Mysteries), Tyrone Ngatai, Ling Cooper Tang (Troppo), Andrew Shaw (RFDS), Ashan Kumar, Céline Menville (Emily in Paris) and Kayden Price round out the cast.

The decision not to continue with the series is part of Disney's plan to remove streaming content, which was revealed in May and for which the company is seeking an impairment of approximately $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion. It followed Disney's announcement in February that it plans to cut $3 billion in non-sports content within the company.

As part of its cost-cutting strategy, Disney's streaming platforms, especially flagship Disney+, have re-examined their programming with a new emphasis on content curation.

As previously announced, Disney+ is also canceling another upcoming original series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, an American live-action series film adaptation of the popular children's fantasy books.

In recent months, dozens of original series and specials were pulled from Disney+ and Hulu, and Disney CEO Bob Iger also announced a withdrawal of new Marvel and Star Wars series and movies for Disney+.

Like The Spiderwick Chronicles, which is currently being shopped by main studios Paramount Television Studios, Nautilus is already shot. It started filming in February 2022 in Australia.

Disney+ is working with the production team to find a new home for Nautilus, with meetings and screenings underway. The series is produced by Xavier Marchand's Moonriver Studios and Anand Tucker's Seven Stories.

Nautilus was announced at the 2021 Edinburgh TV Festival along with two other new British original series for Disney+. It is believed that the content cuts will not affect other local UK series.

Disney+'s UK scripted and unscripted programming includes J Blakeson's Culprits, Jilly Cooper's Rivals, Stephen Graham's A Thousand Blows, Coleen Rooney's upcoming documentary In Vogue from Vogue Studios, and Raw and Shardlake, based on the novels by C. J. Sansom.

The streamer also recently launched two new British drama series: Jeff Pope's Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the thriller Playdate.