When Disney+ launched back in 2019, it was not only heralded as the one-stop streaming destinations for all things Disney, but it was also intended to be a family-friendly option for movies and TV. Aside from some PG-13 offerings like the films from Marvel Studios, almost everything on Disney+ was appropriate for younger audiences. That started to shift with the arrival of the Deadpool films, and the family-only mentality was almost totally abandoned with the integration of Hulu. Still, if you’re a standalone Disney+ member, there have only been a few truly adult options available to stream.
That changed a bit on Tuesday, as the start of a new month brought some Hulu’s biggest horror titles to Disney+, making them available for standalone subscribers, not just folks with the Hulu bundle. These R-rated films are fairly gory and graphic, representing a big change in the usual Disney+ programming.
The films added over from Hulu are both 20th Century titles, a studio owned by Disney. The first is 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Danny Boyle’s iconic zombie thriller. The film’s arrival on Disney+ comes as the third movie in the trilogy, 28 Years Later, is playing in theaters.
The other movie is 2024 hit Alien: Romulus. As many know, all of the Alien films are a particular brand of gore and thrills, and Romulus arguably takes that up another notch. There are a lot of gnarly scenes throughout the film, but its big twist and horrifying new creation in the final act stand out as some of the scariest imagery in the whole Alien franchise.
If you do have the Hulu and Disney+ bundle, there are obviously a lot more R-rated options to dig into. The entirety of the Alien and Predator franchises were recently added back to Hulu’s lineup, bringing subscribers the opportunity to stream through the whole connected saga. With the bundle option, all of those films can be accessed through Disney+. Romulus is currently the only one of those movies you can stream on Disney+ without having some access to Hulu.
As Disney+ continues to evolve and change, as it has over the six years since its launch, there’s of course a chance we could start to see more and more adult-oriented content on its roster. A big step towards that came when the Disney-owned Marvel Studios released Deadpool & Wolverine last year. The film is heavily R-rated, featuring loads of blood, violence, and language. Having an R-rated film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe changes the perception and direction of Disney’s biggest franchise.
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